Deepening penetration by cheap imports is the explanation offered by the supermarkets' critics among producers for the further narrowing of price spreads between farm gate and checkout, whereas of course the multiples claim competition between them is the true story. Traditional butchers would see nothing surprising in the squeeze on pork and bacon, attributing it to normal cyclical price smoothing. A possible flaw in these spread estimates is the use of prices from MLC's retail surveys, but its economists say an intelligent if informal weighting is applied to the figures. {{MEAT }}