Macra has written to the government calling for farmer input to be included in future meetings of the Retail Forum.
Macra President John Keane said that he is “astonished” that the forum, which has 35 members, has “not one representative of the primary food producers in Ireland”.
The Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Neale Richmond chaired a special meeting of the forum yesterday (Wednesday, May 10), to discuss high grocery prices which have not dropped in line with inflation and energy costs.
Keane said that it was “incredulous that any progress could be made on the cost of food to the consumer without consulting the producers of this food”.
“It is only through engagement with the food sector that changes can be made,” he said.
Retail Forum
Established in 2014, the Retail Forum normally meets on a quarterly basis and includes retail representative bodies; retailers; the City and County Managers Association; and government departments.
Members of the forum include Tesco Ireland and the Musgraves Group, which owns the SuperValu and Centra brands.
Macra said that the effects of food inflation, which data company Kantar said was running at 16.6% in the 12 weeks to April 16, “have been clear for all to see”.
The farming organisation said that there is “no dissent on the requirement to steady if not decrease the prices that consumers are facing at the tills”.
However, it does not believe that this can be achieved by reducing the price available to primary food producers who have faced “significant increases” in input costs over the past 18 months.
Minister Richmond described yesterday’s meeting as “an open and frank” discussion with members of the Retail Forum.
“I am pleased to say that I received assurances from retailers that, where reductions in input costs filter through to products, consumers will benefit from this,” he said.
Macra
In a letter to Minister Richmond, the Macra president has demanded to know why the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) were not invited to attend yesterday’s meeting.
“It seems to Macra remiss not to include the department with direct responsibility for food production in Ireland in attending and contributing to this meeting,” Keane wrote.
The Retail Forum is scheduled to meet again at the end of June to review progress made by retailers on the issue of food price.
In the past week, several retailers have cut the prices of their own-brand milk and butter.
Yesterday, Tesco Ireland confirmed it is to reduce the consumer retail price on its own brand bread by 10c. SuperValu announced a similar price cut for its own-brand bread today.
Meanwhile, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has warned the government against placing food price caps on groceries.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told the Dáil that preliminary advice received by the government from the authority “cautions strongly against the introduction of price controls”.
The CCPC pointed out that similar proposals in Spain were abandoned because of the impact such a measure would have on small retailers, particularly those in rural areas where higher margins are required to keep those businesses afloat.