The European Commission has announced a “series of measures” aimed at enhancing the position of farmers within the food supply chain and protecting them from unfair trade practices.
According to a report by Euractiv, a media platform, the document published on February 22 and discussed in the Agriculture and Fisheries Council outlines the European executive’s plan to implement short-medium and long-term policies.
These policies are designed to improve farmers’ standing in the food supply chain and shield them from unfair commercial practices.
Farmers’ income and bargaining power in the value chain have been central issues following protests across the European Union. Producers argue that agricultural raw materials are not adequately compensated, while intermediaries like food industries and supermarkets are driving prices down to boost their profit margins.
Several delegations raised the issue during the Agriculture and Fisheries Council, where Belgian Agriculture Minister David Clarinval, who presided over the council, stated in a press conference that they “examined proposals aimed at strengthening the position of farmers in the medium to long term, both financially and within the agricultural food chain.”
The EU already has mechanisms in place to protect producers, such as the “Omnibus” regulation of 2017.
This regulation extends to all agricultural sectors some powers of producer organizations, including production planning, improving production costs, marketing, and negotiating contracts for the supply of agricultural products and labeling its members.
Recently, the Unfair Trading Practices directive created a blacklist of ten prohibited practices, including paying for perishable agricultural and food products after 30 days and unilateral changes to the contract by the buyer.
Spain’s Agriculture Minister Luis Planas recently requested the Commission to update the directive on unfair trading practices to be more in line with Spain’s legislation, which he considers “pioneering,” especially regarding the prohibition of selling at a loss (selling at a price lower than production costs).
Italy sided with Spain by submitting a memorandum to the council calling for the reinforcement of the directive and ensuring greater transparency regarding the origin of the product listed on the label.
During an extraordinary European Council meeting in early February, French President Emmanuel Macron stated, “We need a law at the European level to assist farmers similar to the French ‘Egalim’ law, which allows for setting prices based on production costs during commercial negotiations. This is the strictest law in Europe for protecting producers.”
