The Irish government has promised legislation to protect vegetable growers affected by supermarket price wars will be published “within weeks”.
Speaking to RTE's Morning Ireland TV programme, minister for agriculture Simon Coveneysaid growers were “right to be concerned” at signs that some supermarkets were forcing down the price of vegetables as part of “an aggressive price war”.
It follows the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) accusing retailers of abusing potato growers in particular through giveaway prices as part of a pre-Christmas price war.
According to the Irish Times, incoming IFA president Eddie Downey said the widespread sale of very cheap fruit and vegetables by supermarkets was “unacceptable”, and that supermarkets were tearing apart the incomes of vegetable growers “because of an effort to get footfall across a multiple’s door”.
Coveney said such price wars put great strain on many growers who were reliant on a small number - or even one - retailer.
However, he added that the new legislation would not set minimum prices for vegetables, and thatit would ensure that contracts agreed between producers and retailers were fully respected and there could be no charging producers for “hello money”, or other payments for shelf space in supermarkets.
And, Coveney told Morning Ireland, the legislation would reset the “power balance” between producers and retailers “through regulation and a mandatory code of conduct and that is the direction we are going in”.
Meanwhile, farmers staged a street protest in Dublin on 20 December against supermarkets selling vegetables too cheaply, the Irish Times reported.
A group of farmers marched into Dunnes Stores in St Stephen’s Green Centre, and bought a trolley full of heavily-discounted bags of carrots and parsnips.
According to the Irish news outlet, the farmers then handed the root vegetables out to passers-by, with IFA president John Bryan - who will be replaced by Downey in January - telling them Dunnes was almost giving out the produce for free, so farmers might as well give it away for nothing.
The IFA action was held to highlight the supermarket price war, which has seen the price of vegetables fall to as low as 5 cent per kilo in some outlets. Dunnes Stores, for example, is selling carrots for 6 cent per bag.
Several hundred IFA members stood outside the shopping centre and chanted “Dunnes Stores, shame on you”, reported the Times.
Similar actions were staged in other Dunnes Stores and Lidl outlets, with branches of Lidl and Aldi selling one-kilo bags of carrots for 5 cent each.
While Dunnes Stores has not commented on the issue, Lidl and Aldi have insisted they are absorbing the costs of the promotion.
