The IFA has called for the establishment of an independent retail regulator to help protect producers in the food supply chain.
The Agriculture Committee of the European Parliament were discussing a new European Commission proposal on retail regulation recently, an initiative proposed by Phil Hogan, the Irish commissioner.
IFA president Joe Healy said: “ The introduction of a minimum common standard of protection across member states must be welcomed, but this is only the first step in reining in the retailers and rebalancing power in the food chain. The current situation where processors and retailers always make a margin while farmers are sometimes forced to produce at or below the cost of production, is totally unacceptable.”
Mention was made of the UK model - the Grocery Code Adjudicator - as the best practice model to follow.
