The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has said that the new food regulator office “cannot be delayed any further”.
The association drew particular attention to the horticulture sector, saying it is “haemorrhaging”.
Speaking after a national meeting in relation to the horticulture sector that was held last week, IFA president Tim Cullinan said the Office of Fairness and Transparency in the Agri Food Supply Chain “must be established without further delay”.
According to Cullinan, “illegal and unfair” trading practices at any stage of the food supply chain “will not be tolerated, and IFA will bring these to the attention of the relevant authorities”.
“Our sustainable horticultural sector is in demise and the [new food regulator office] must be robust, and the legislation must give real powers to address these longstanding issues before the industry is completely eroded,” Cullinan said.
Niall McCormack, the IFA’s Fruit and Vegetable Committee chairperson, said the industry has lost key growers in the past two years, with many more growers “hanging on by a knife edge”, according to some of the speakers at last week’s meeting.
“It is projected that the area of field vegetables will contract by a minimum of 7% again this year. This downward trajectory cannot continue,” McCormack commented after the meeting.
“Irish growers are proactive and positive by nature.
“At the meeting, stakeholders discussed what our industry can do in terms of self-promotion, marketing, collaboration, and research to overcome challenges, but none of this is relevant if we are not in business,” the association’s fruit and vegetable chair said.
He added: “We should be shouting about the positive attributes of our sector in terms of food security and our environmentally sustainable produce. However, time and time again we are in crisis mode to save our sector. It simply cannot continue.”
Food regulator in Dáil
In other recent news related to the new food fairness and transparency office, a TD claimed recently that the regulator could amount to a “toothless tiger“.
Clare TD Michael McNamara, who is also a barrister and farmer, has proposed several amendments to the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022.
Although welcoming the establishment of a regulator for the food chain, McNamara stressed the need for the new office to be given “explicit power to increase transparency”.
“At it stands it will be a toothless tiger, reduced to merely studying and reporting data already in the public domain.
“There’s some transparency in what producers get paid and plenty in what consumers pay but little transparency in between, in particular in the murky relationship between processors and retailers,” he added.