The new Agri-Food Regulator needs to investigate how the “final” price that consumers pay is constructed and who get’s what, according to the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA).
The organisation said today (Tuesday, July 25) that farmers are currently “reserving their judgement” on the new office of the Agri-Food Regulator.
According to Pat McCormack, president of the ICMSA, it is vital that the office turns its immediate focus to supply chain transparency.
He said there are concerns that the office could simply join what he described “the list of toothless agencies”.
McCormack said if the office of the Agri-Food Regulator is to win the confidence of the farmer primary-producer in Ireland, it needs to expose “margin-grabbing” and deliver real supply chain transparency.
“For too long, farmers have known the price they receive, and the consumer has known the price they pay, but the bit in-between has been a mystery.
“ICMSA is firmly of the view that for the regulator to make a real impact, from day one, it should publish monthly the prices received by the primary producer, the processor, the retailer and any other actors in the supply chain in a way that takes into account the uniqueness of each food product,” he added.
The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue has previously pledged that the office of the Agri-Food Regulator “will promote and enforce the principles of fairness and transparency in the agricultural and food supply chain, having a particular regard to farmers, fishers and small food businesses”.
But McCormack said questions around scenarios such as the dairy sequence where the price paid to dairy farmers and by consumers is transparent, but what the processors receive is not, need answers.
He also said that there are issues around beef where a farmer sells a finished animal, while the consumer purchases specific cuts, but there is no transparency around “where, when and who got the value from the animal that the farmers had finished”.
“The new regulator has an opportunity to make a real difference and food price transparency is going to be the key initial test, both in terms of overall supply chain fairness and of producing sustainable food,” McCormack added.