Applying unit pricing to supermarkets with a grocery display floor space larger than 1000 square metres will add costs to many family-owned independent supermarkets, said Senator Barnaby Joyce, the leader of the Nationals in the Senate.

"Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs Chris Bowen should have applied the new guidelines to only those supermarkets greater than 2000 square metres," Senator Joyce said. "Coles and Woolworths have 87 per cent of the supermarkets in Australia that are larger than 2000 square metres. They will be able to set unit prices from a head office to apply to numerous stores.

"With the lower threshold of 1000 square metres, many more independently owned supermarkets will now be affected. While nationally independents operate only 13 per cent of supermarkets above 2000 square metres, they operate around 30 per cent of supermarkets above 1000 square metres.

“This lower threshold imposes a disproportionately higher burden on family-owned independents. While larger retailers have the capacity to quickly apply unit pricing and cover the costs over a large retail area, independents with one store will find the logistics of unit pricing high.

"Independent operators may only have one store but they will need to provide unit prices for several thousand items,” Senator Joyce. “There will be less incentive to change prices often because of the added workload, so the consumers can miss out on specials. Once again the smaller business owners are being squeezed by the dominance of two major players in our retail sector. The ultimate goal is transparency for the consumer and diversity in the retail sector for a more competitive outcome for all.

"Unit pricing does not deal with the issue of clear country of origin identification so that Australian consumers know that the vegetables that they are buying come from a clean and hygienic Australian farm or from another country where the phytosanitary controls maybe lax. Minister Bowen's legislation might be telling us how much we are paying per 100 grams but it is not addressing the problems of what we are eating and why there are only two major retailers selling it to us. The Minister needs to strengthen the Trade Practices Act to break up the Coles and Woolworths dominance of the supermarket sector."