Europe looking to create a fairer food supply chain

With indications that the added value in the food supply chain is not adequately distributed across all levels of the chain, the European Commission has launched an EU-wide public consultation on how to make the EU food supply chain fairer.

Differences in bargaining power between smaller and thus more vulnerable operators including farmers and small businesses and their economically stronger and highly concentrated commercial partners are possibly contributing to a lack of fairness and so farmers, citizens and other interested parties have been invited to share their views on the functioning of the food supply chain through an online consultation that runs until 17 November.

Agriculture and rural development commissioner Phil Hogan said: "Farmers are the first link in the chain and without them, there would not be food to process, sell and consume. However, we notice that they often remain the weakest link. It is to address the shortcomings in the food supply chain that we are leading the way to act, in accordance with the commission's longstanding position to stand by European farmers. I encourage all EU citizens, farmers, stakeholders to share their views with us through this online consultation."

The European Commission is interested in gathering input to assess the necessity and expedience of possible measures to be taken at the EU level to address or regulate unfair trading practices with respect to agri-food products.

The commission is also keen to assess the level of market transparency across the chain and where it can be improved. Considering the need for some degree of competition, the consultation will help judging whether the introduction of supplementary EU market transparency arrangements is necessary.

Finally, the questionnaire scans the level of interest in producer cooperation and the use of so-called value sharing agreements (namely the sharing of market bonuses and losses resulting from evolutions of the relevant market prices), which are already in use in some sectors such as sugar.