Whilst there's a supplier that's willing to undercut another/agree to these terms this will always be the case, unfortunately the alternative is a monopoly, an organised group of suppliers controlling the prices.
Totally agree, and the way to beat an organised group of suppliers is an organised group of buyers so you end up with cartels on both side which doesn't work either.
Its a no win situation and the best anyone can hope for is to just tick over and run with it.
I have had my share of dealing with big buyers in the venison industry, the buyers know that you have to cull the deer anyway and that once they are dead you have a limited time to sell them. These days, I would rather work harder and sell locally to several different outlets, often at a lower price per kilo, than put all my eggs in one basket with a major dealer.
Like i've said before, I don't deny the supermarkets their profits, and I shop at Tesco just like the next man, but I cringe when I see the adverts that suggest that they are the UK farmers best buddies, if that were the case then they wouldn't sell Danish bacon, NZ lamb and Israli spuds, they would only stock produce from British farms and if that produce wasn't avilable due to supply or seasonal variation then the house wife would have to do without until it was. Again, totally unrealistic as she would just go to the next supermarket that did stock it and never come back. Glyn.