The peak Qld horticulture organisation last month described the inquiry as 'an opportunity lost since it had failed to investigate the supply chain as far as the farmgate'.

It had been unable to shed light on the pricing mechanisms used by the retailers to set food prices.

Mr Panitz said that, despite its enormous statutory powers, the ACCC had declared it could find no evidence of suppliers being unfairly pressured by Woolworths and Coles to bear costs.

Yet ABC journalists had found ample evidence in preparing a 60 minute television program.

“Farmers are not only having to bear the increasing cost of inputs such as fertiliser, fuel, labour and freight in their own production systems, but they are also bearing the cost of propping up the profits of Coles and Woolworths.

“Clearly, any sale prices enjoyed by consumers in a Coles or Woolworths store are being funded by suppliers further down the chain.

"While this works well for Coles and Woolworths shareholders, it does little to promote the growth of a vibrant food production industry in the longer term.

“And given the imbalance of power in the trading relationship between retailers and growers, it is disingenuous of the ACCC to suggest that because farmers did not report their trading situation to them no problem exists,” Mr Panitz said.

"The concentration of market power in the hands of Coles and Woolworths is working very successfully in eliminating the degree of choice consumers will have in future about where they buy their groceries and what they are able to buy.

"Even Reg Clairs, a former CEO of Woolworths, recognises the risks of the continual downward price pressure on farmers and food manufacturers for the sustainability of industry in the longer term.

“But by apparently sanctioning the tactics at work within the grocery supply chain, and more recently by justifying the global market forces at work within the fertiliser supply chain, the ACCC has sent a very sobering message to agricultural producers and other suppliers.

“One questions whether government is similarly prepared to maintain this hard line to its rural constituents and the communities which depend upon them.”