When I began reporting on agriculture fado, fado, there were plenty of stories about farmers being ripped off by retailers. “Hello money” was an issue and for fruit and veg growers in North County Dublin for example, there were dreadful stories of how they were treated by the big multiples.
Unfair Trading Practice is now a thing across the European Union and to be fair to the European Commission, they seem to be listening to farmers concerns now, which they didn’t do during most of the last Commission mandate.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Agriculture & Food Commissioner Christoph Hansen have committed “to strengthening the farmers’ position in the agrifood supply chain and enhancing cross border enforcement against unfair trading practices.” This includes “making written contracts a general obligation and improving the way long-term contracts take into account market developments and fluctuations of costs and economic conditions.”
From an Irish co-operative perspective, whilst any measures aimed at bolstering the interests of the producer in the supply chain are welcome, because of the dairy co-operative system in Ireland, mandatory contracts are not a legislative requirement and the prevailing system of milk suppliers supplying to their co-operatives functions well.
Elsewhere in the EU Commission proposal, member states would be obliged to establish a mediation mechanism to cover cases in which there is no mutual agreement to conclude a contract. A bit like the dent in Fr. Teds car, in attempting to fix one problem sometimes another unnecessary one can be created. But that is the beauty of the EU, how legislative proposals are in the spirit of being fair and sustainable, what is good for the goose is not necessarily good for the gander.
All that said, simplifying the red tape and bureaucracy of the Common Agricultural Policy which is another part of the EU Commission commitment to farmers is something that nobody can quibble with. And farm groups and co-operative organisations across the EU are feeling listened to once more with Commissioner Hansen telling MEPs at the March meeting of the Parliaments agriculture committee in Strasbourg, “when I speak to farmers, I hear a strong call for stability & predictability, & also for the recognition of the crucial role that farming & rural areas play in Europe’s economy, security & strategic autonomy.”
In selling his “Vision for the future of Agriculture” to MEPs he said “(Farmers) must be preserved across the continent, & the vision identifies European food sovereignty as an integral part of the EU security agenda.” The days of farmers being bullied by the big multiples seems to be coming to an end.
(Note: Letter from Brussels is published in the Irish Farmers Monthly magazine)