The think tank Farm Europe brought forward ideas on Thursday 20 October for improving the position of farmers on the food supply chain.
It advocates increased transparency, including on prices and volumes at the time of the first processing and of sale to the final consumer, and says contract relations should be encouraged on the basis of clearer rules, allowing collective contract negotiations at producer organisation level or by producer organisations. The goal is to improve relations within the food chain.
Reformed relations within the food sector was one of the issues raised at the Global Food Forum, organised by Farm Europe in Italy to discuss the common agricultural policy (CAP) after 2020.
In order to encourage cooperation among farmers and food producers, a branch approach for volumes and price negotiation should be explicitly authorised to guarantee better repartition of the value when prices are both rising and falling – fluctuations to which the distribution sector is more resistant. To address unfair commercial practices, Farm Europe says that a clear set of practices should be prohibited, with clear and dissuasive sanction mechanisms (while fully protecting the identity of the complainants).
Farm Europe will submit recommendations to Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan and the agricultural markets task force, which is due to report soon. The changes that can be proposed without waiting for the post-2020 situation relate principally to competition policy, building on the specific features of the CAP set out in Article 39 of the treaty. The CAP should, then, prevail over general competition rules. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)