The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) have today warned that an independent ombudsman is needed in Ireland to regulate the grocery retail market.
 
This comes after the UK Groceries Code Adjudicator in the UK found that a major retailer deliberately delayed payments to suppliers and unilaterally paid them less than they were owed in an attempt to meet financial targets.
 
The IFA are calling for stronger legislation and increased price transparency. In particular, they are calling for the introduction of an Independent Ombudsman to oversee and regulate the behaviour of retailers and to ban below-costs selling.

IFA National Chairman, Jer Bergin commented, "In Ireland and at EU level, there is a major imbalance of power in the food supply chain between retailers on the one hand and processors, suppliers and primary producers on the other.

"The small number of large retailers clearly have excessive buying power and the ability to dictate prices levels back to farmers, often driving prices to uneconomic levels and even below the cost of production."

He added, “While the Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2014 has begun to address the issue of retailer regulation, the Grocery Code Regulations have yet to be published. These will provide some contractual guarantees between producers and retailers, however the UK experience shows that a strong, Independent Retail Ombudsman is needed to deal firmly with retailer multinationals.”

Source: www.businessworld.ie