Legislators have made slow progress in attempting to tackle the power of retailers and multiples.

The EU Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan spoke to the Irish Farmers Journal this week in Brussels ahead of his meeting with the Agriculture Committee of the European Parliament on Unfair Trading Practices (UTPs).

He made his ambition clear to deal with this issue and by uniting with EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. This has maximised the chances of the Commission bringing forward proposals that will deal with this issue in a substantive way.

In his appearance before the Committee, Commissioner Hogan made clear his view that it was unfair for the big players to impose contractual changes on smaller suppliers and he was also critical of the concept of “hello money” to obtain or retain supply contracts.

The process that may lead to legislation begins with a 12 week “inception impact assessment” that will involve engagement with stakeholders where concepts will be presented for consideration.

This will be followed by a three-month wider public consultation.

Retail resistance

There is plenty resistance already with retail representatives lobbying against in the belief that the market is working fine as it is.

The EU has a superb centralised price reporting system that gives a clear picture of farm prices across all member states, standardised to enable direct comparison.

After the farmgate there is no factual information with market trends and stocks knowledge non existent beyond the anecdotal discussions with industry players.

This contrasts dramatically with the US where stocks and values of agricultural commodities are updated daily and available for everyone to analyse.

This model could and should be used at an EU level to address the issue of absence of information beyond the farm gate.

It would fit comfortably within any legislation around the wider issues the Commissioner referred to on fairness and best of all it is a proven model.

The issue of legislation also has widespread support in Parliament but there is equally a strong view, particularly in northern European countries that things are fine as they are.

The first steps are now being taken but a journey lies ahead.

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