The Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed has opened a public consultation on the transposition of the Unfair Trading Practices (UTP) Directive into Irish legislation. The UTP Directive deals with unfair trading practices in business to business relationships in the agricultural and food supply chain.

Under the terms of the directive, dairy co-ops can be considered to be both suppliers, in term of their relations with their customers, and buyers, in terms of their relations with their members. Any enterprise with a turnover below €350 million will be protected as a supplier from buyers that are larger than them, while all-sized dairy co-operatives in Ireland will be considered to be buyers.

The UTP Directive is one of a number of initiatives at EU level aimed at improving market transparency.

EU law requires that the Directive must be transposed into national law by 1^st May 2021 and will apply in national law no later than from 1^st November 2021 for new contracts.

The public consultation is open until 13^th December 2019. ICOS will review the consultation documents and will submit a response before the deadline.

By Eamonn Farrell – Agri-Food Policy Executive