European agricultural federation Copa-Cogeca is calling for the establishment of an independent European Food Trading Agency to act as an ombudsman and police the food sector.
Marc Rosiers, vice-chairman of the group's food chain working party, told this week's ICOP 2012 conference in Brussels that an ombudsman was needed to adjudicate on disputes between producers and retailers. A similar scheme is currently being introduced in the UK.
“The ultimate objective is to achieve a fair, functioning and transparent food supply chain,” he said. “There is an unbalanced food chain because of the consolidation of the supply and retail/distribution sectors.”
Rosiers’ call comes as discussions continue over the establishment of a voluntary code of conduct to govern supplier-customer relations.
A high level forum featuring farmers, retailers and European commissioners was set up in November 2010 and a first draft of the new voluntary code was tabled in June 2012.
However, this was rejected by Copa-Cogeca over concerns about issues of supplier anonymity in complaints and fears over 'retaliation' by retailers.
Efforts to reach agreement will continue at another meeting of the forum on 5 December, but clear tensions are emerging between retailers and farmers, with Copa-Cogeca accusing supermarkets of trying to reach an agreement earlier this year with all the other parties, but excluding the farmers’ organisation.
The proposed code would look to stamp out practices such as retailers failing to put key terms in writing or unilateral retrospective changes to contract clauses.
Copa-Cogeca now wants an ombudsman to ensure retailers stick to these obligations.
Its secretary-general, Pekka Pesonen, said: “I am seriously disappointed that talks broke down and no agreement was reached. We want an end of threatening behaviour from contracting parties in favour of fair contract terms in the food chain. But in view of the huge differences, this could not be achieved.
“We call upon the European Commission to pursue a route leading to legislation that sets the foundation to an EU approach to voluntary codes.”
