12 APRIL 2018

ICSA president Patrick Kent has welcomed EU Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan’s moves today to bring an end to Unfair Trading Practices (UTPs) in the food supply chain. “ICSA has been lobbying extensively for this, both at home and in Europe. The Commissioner’s proposed directive provides a unique opportunity to improve the functioning of the food chain supply to make it fairer by strengthening the bargaining power of small suppliers.”

UTPs set to be outlawed under Commissioner Hogan’s directive includes late payments for perishable food products, last minute order cancellations, unilateral or retroactive changes to contracts & forcing the supplier to pay for wasted product.

Mr Kent said, “This is a very important step on the road in curtailing the greedy practices and excessive profiteering at retail level. However, we need to follow this with legislation to audit the whole retail chain and discern whether there is a fair share of margins allocated to all parts of the chain. We now need to push for more transparency around how the profits from key products like beef, lamb and dairy are shared.”

“For too long retailers have been making huge profits at the expense of primary producers so identifying exactly who gets what profits in the entire food supply chain is essential. I would like to reassure our members that ICSA will be at the forefront of this process to ensure farmers are treated more fairly.”

ENDS