Farmers have reacted ­angrily to the Competition Commission's latest grocery report and claim it has failed to tackle the key issue of supermarket buying power and its impact on farming. As the industry was left reeling this week from the foot and mouth disease outbreak, there was little succour for farmers in the 60-page working paper on primary production and the grocery supply chain. In the report, the Commission noted that food safety and welfare issues, changes to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the activities of intermediary businesses all had an impact on the primary producer; thus supermarkets were not solely to blame for farmers' problems. We do not consider that this buying power is the sole cause of the difficulties being faced by substantial numbers of primary producers, particularly in sectors such as the dairy industry," said the report. The Commission said it would continue to investigate the effect of the grocery supply chain on primary producers. Robert Newbery, NFU food chain and farm policy adviser, said the extra factors all increased costs for the farmer and should be factored into farmgate prices. "These costs should all be passed up the supply chain," said Newbury. "If the Commission can't see that something is not working when retail prices stay the same, there is something wrong with the investigation."