The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton, has published the Competition and Consumer Protection Bill 2014, after he secured Government agreement on the text of the legislation last week.

The legislation has two main components that impact on the agri-food industry: 1. Merge the National Consumer Agency and Competition Authority and deliver improvements in competition law to create a watchdog with real teeth; and, 2. Regulate certain practices in the grocery goods sector aimed at ensuring balance and fairness between the various players in the sector – suppliers, retailers and consumers.

Reacting to the announcement that regulations are to be introduced to ensure fairness in the food chain, IFA President Eddie Downey said the real test of the new legislation would be a fairer return to producers which covers the cost of production and leaves a margin to reward their work and investment.

“IFA has campaigned for a long time on this issue, and the fact that the Government has finally published the legislation is progress. It is a first step and the legislation must be passed through the Oireachtas quickly. It must be sufficiently robust to restore equity to the food supply chain and curb the dominance of the retail multiples. The latest figures released show the three major multiples control over 80% of the grocery market.”

The IFA Executive Council will meet next week and analyse the legislation in detail. The Council will be bringing forward farmers suggestions to ensure its effectiveness. In addition, IFA will meet with the Department of Agriculture, which will have a specific role in this area.

Eddie Downey said: “The retail multiples are over dominant in the food supply chain and some of them are engaged in unfair and predatory pricing practices, which are impacting very negatively on the viability of primary producers. Strong and effective legislation, both at national and EU level, is needed to ensure producers are paid a fair price which reflects production costs and leaves an acceptable margin.”

The IFA President warned that without proper enforcement powers, the role of the new Commission as envisaged in the legislation will be toothless. “There is little point in the Government fulfilling its promise if it doesn’t provide the necessary back-up to tackle the retailers”.

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Publishing the legislation, Minister Bruton said: “We are introducing strong regulations and powerful new investigation and enforcement powers to ensure fairness between suppliers and retailers in the grocery goods sector. There is potentially a real inequality of arms between these players which can be abused in a manner that is not in the interests of jobs, consumers or sustainable safe food.”

He added: “Relationships will continue to be based on commerce and prices will continue to be set by hard negotiations – this is in the interests of consumers. However new legal requirements for record-keeping and the inclusion of certain terms in written contracts together with strong enforcement powers will ensure that these relationships are fair and sustainable.”