Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, has today (Friday, September 3) signed EU rules on food pricing into Irish law, which will give effect to additional price reporting obligations.
The aim is to improve food market price transparency in the European Union (EU).
Minister McConalogue said: “I am committed to bringing increased market transparency to all elements of the supply chain.
“I believe increased price reporting be an important tool, along with other initiatives including the Unfair Trading Practices (UTP) legislation and support for producer organisations, in strengthening the position of primary producers, who are key to the success of our sector.
“My department is progressing the drafting of legislation needed to establish the new Office of the Food Ombudsman or equivalent, which will have a specific role in analysing and reporting on price and market data in Ireland, as well as enforcing the UTP Directive.”
The minister has indicated that he intends that the new office will build on existing work on market transparency, including the market transparency studies commissioned by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
New food pricing rules
It’s understood that the new changes build on existing price reporting obligations to provide more information on prices at each stage of the food supply chain.
The minister said that while there is a large amount of information available about farmgate prices, volumes and stocks, and the prices paid by consumers at retail level, there is limited information about prices at other stages of the chain.
An example of this is the prices at which processors sell product and the prices at which retailers buy product.
The enhanced reporting requirements for Ireland apply to both the meat and dairy sectors.
The data currently collected and reported to the EU by Ireland consists of processor prices paid to farmers for the following products:
- Beef;
- Sheepmeat;
- Pigmeat;
- Poultry (broiler per kg);
- Eggs (average wholesale price for enriched cage eggs);
- Butter;
- Skimmed milk;
- Cheese.
Additional price reporting
In advance of the implementation of these new changes at EU level, DAMF has said that it has provided additional detailed price reporting on the Beef PriceWatch app.
Also, Bord Bia developed a beef market price index model which is updated weekly on its website.
The index shows the relationship between the Irish beef price and a composite export benchmark price; an index of wholesale and retail prices; and a by-product market indicator.
The department recently hosted a webinar with officials from DG Agri, who provided an overview of the enhanced EU market observatories and price reporting requirements to stakeholders.