The president of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) Francie Gorman has said that a ban on below-cost buying and selling of food is urgently needed.
He is calling on Minster for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue to recognise the need for additional legislative powers for the Agri-Food Regulator.
Gorman also said that the minister should implement additional measures in the EU Unfair Trading Practices Directive (UTPs) to strengthen the position of farmers in the agri-food chain.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen recently said that farmers should be given increased protection from buyers.
She added that dominant food buyers should not be permitted to purchase agri-food products below the cost of production.
Below-cost selling
The IFA president welcomed the establishment of a new EU Agri-food Chain Observatory in July.
The observatory aims to bring increased transparency on prices, structure of costs and distribution of margins in the supply chain across all EU member states.
“Our own minister can do more immediately with our national legislation to protect the livelihoods of farmers.
“Ireland is one of the only EU members states which did not add additional legislation to the EU UTP’s Directive to help stamp out practices which are putting farmers out of business, such as below cost buying from farmers and below cost selling by retailers,” Gorman said.
“The dominance of big food buyers including large retailers operating in Ireland today have a dominant position over farmers in the food supply chain and the current legislation does not go far enough to level the playing pitch for farmers,” he added.
Gorman acknowledged that the establishment of An Rialálaí Agraibhia (The Agri-Food Regulator) last December was “a positive first step in addressing the imbalance of power in the food supply chain in Ireland”.
However, he said that this office must be given significant powers to tackle the big food buyers and strengthen the position of farmers.
The EU UTP Directive bans 16 practices that can have harmful effects on the weakest actors in the chain, notably farmers and smaller suppliers.
The results of an ongoing review of the EU UTP legislation are due in late 2025.
“Covering the cost of production is clearly not enough. Farmers, like everyone else, have to live and they need to have a margin to have a sustainable family farm food production model in Ireland.
“This is step in the right direction, but it must be built on into the future,” Gorman said.