Price wars in the grocery sector are being blamed for a sharp rise in the number of insolvencies amongst food suppliers.

In the past year, 146 food producers filed for insolvency, up from 114 the previous year, despite an 8% fall in company liquidations overall.

Accountancy firm Moore Stephens said that the supermarkets were cutting prices by squeezing small suppliers in order to maintain their profits.

Duncan Swift, a partner at Moore Stephens, said: "The supermarkets are going through the bloodiest price war in nearly two decades and are using food producers as the cannon fodder. Supermarkets have engaged in questionable buying practices for years, but it's getting worse and clearly wreaking havoc on the UK food production sector."

The British Retail Consortium said it was "too simplistic" to blame supermarkets.

A spokesman said: "All major supermarkets know the only way to deliver consistent quality and value in a competitive market is by building long term sustainable relationships with their suppliers. That's why so many suppliers have worked with the same retailer for so long.

“It is far too simplistic to blame retailers for this. Firstly there may be a number of reasons for failure and we don't know if they supply retailers, and even if they do they are likely to have other customers.

"Secondly retailers operate in a highly regulated supply chain with a strict code of practice governing contracts and an adjudicator appointed by Parliament specifically to ensure fair dealing," he said.