Farmers must not bear the brunt of a proposed voluntary food price cap, farming industry leaders have warned.
The industry has reacted with concern over proposals emerging at the weekend on a price cap on food through the retailer network.
From the perspective of farmers, although voluntary at retailer level, this has implications, industry leaders have said.
There are fears the move would put further pressure on the primary producer, amid tight margins and high input costs.
"There is no room for any more pressure," warned Martin Kennedy, NFU Scotland's president.
"We have already seen that happening in our egg sector and our fruit and veg sector is also under severe strain because of high costs associated with labour and energy.
"In the past month, every major retailer has already cut the retail price of milk and butter and that is working its way back to the farmgate for dairy farmers.
"It is also working its way into the retail inflation figures," he noted.
The proposal comes just a fortnight after a Number 10 summit seeking to bolster the nation's food security.
Fairness in the supply chain is something that the government says its wants to see, amid investigations into pigs, eggs and horticulture support.
But the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said the government's new proposal would not make a "jot of difference".
Andrew Opie, director of food at the BRC, said: "High food prices are a direct result of the soaring cost of energy, transport, and labour, as well as higher prices paid to food manufacturers and farmers.
"As commodity prices drop, many of the costs keeping inflation high are now arising from the muddle of new regulation coming from government."
NFU Scotland added that any price cap enforced must have no impact on the opportunity for farmers to get a fair return for the food they produce.
"If the Prime Minister is serious about supporting UK agriculture, then he must rethink this proposal," Mr Kennedy said.
"Fairness starts by supporting and fairly rewarding those at the sharp end to maintain supply.
"We will be writing to the Prime Minister to make clear these points."
