On Tuesday 22 August, the EU’s agricultural organisations and cooperatives (Copa and Cogeca) called on the European Commission to present EU legislation to curb unfair trading practices (UTPs) in the food supply chain (see EUROPE 11844).
This is effectively Copa-Cogeca’s response to the impact study (see EUROPE 11839) presented by the European Commission on all the different options for strengthening the position of farmers in the food supply chain.
The Secretary General of Copa-Cogeca, Pekka Pesonen, referred to the “The huge imbalance of power” in the food supply chain that requires the introduction of legislation to improve the position of farmers and put an end to unfair trading practices. He added that, "It is unacceptable that farmers get for example only 20% of the price of a piece of steak when they are the ones who do the majority of the work in producing it”. Mr Pesonen pointed out that Copa-Cogeca was not involved in the voluntary Supply Chain Initiative (SCI) developed by retailers and processors because “it clearly does not work”.
Copa-Cogeca also considers that it is necessary to improve market transparency that will enable all operators in the food supply chain to make more informed decisions. The organisation also believes they need to have derogations from competition law to enable agri-cooperatives and other types of producer organisations “to grow in size and scale”. Copa and Cogeca also welcomed the fact that the Commission organised a public consultation on the food supply chain and expects the Commission to put forward concrete proposals by spring 2018. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)