Niamh Lenehan, CEO of the Agri-food regulator’s office told an Irish Farmers Journal Agribusiness briefing at the National Ploughing Championships that some of the retail businesses it has engaged with failed to provide the data they requested and this is why a request for more powers has been made to the minister.

She explained that they have been engaging with supply chains since last January and decided to do its first report on eggs as “we eat full eggs, they aren’t something that is taken apart”.

This was in relation to egg prices that some retailers had declined requests for additional information not in the public domain.

With the office in place since the end of 2023, Lenehan was asked what other tasks it had undertaken. She explained that “what we are trying to do is improve transparency [in the supply chain].

“The various sectors are very different and we have to be very targeted and specific when asking for information. This is what the engagement with stakeholders in the supply chain since January has been about,” she added.

Supply chain

Lenehan said that it is also the role of her office to investigate complaints raised by anyone in the supply chain.

She added that “we have an open door for people to come and talk to us about issues. We don’t expect people to say we definitely have identified an unfair trading practice and we have started getting complaints in but they are at a very low level.”

Minister of State Martin Heydon was asked if he would support more powers for the regulator. “If the feedback is that retailers or others are not actually engaging to the extent that you want, and then we have to address that,” he said.