On Tuesday 13 June, the European Commission announced the launch of a new food price monitoring tool developed by Eurostat. The tool focuses on the analysis of time series of prices throughout the food chain (at both member state and European levels).
Prices are established along the food chain through transactions between various players in the chain (e.g. farmers, food processors, wholesalers, retailers and final consumers).
The food supply chain may be short and simple for some food products or more complex for others. It may also differ between countries. Following strong volatility of agricultural commodity and food prices towards the end of the last decade, the need was seen for higher transparency on price developments across the different stages of the food production chains. The Commission is preparing proposals on ways of strengthening the position of farmers in the food supply chain (see EUROPE 11792). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)