NFU president Meurig Raymond has urged the fresh produce industry to waste no time in tackling unfair and abusive practices in the supply chain.
Mr Raymond represents EU farmers and co-operatives on the High Level Forum for a Better Functioning Food Supply Chain through the European farmers’ organisation Copa-Cogeca.
The forum, jointly chaired by Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan along with the Commissioners for the Internal Market, Health and Food Safety, seeks to improve relationships across the whole chain from consumers to farmers, processors and retailers.
Speaking at the group’s latest meeting in Brussels, Raymond said it was vital that the supply chain operates in a fair and transparent way.
“Farmers are the weakest link in the food supply chain and are suffering,” he said. “They cannot endure this any longer. We need a cultural change in business ethics. We can no longer accept that those misbehaving stand to gain financially from their actions.
“Purely voluntary schemes to curb unfair trading practices, such as we had in the UK, did not work and we ended up with legislation – the GSCOP – and a Groceries Code Adjudicator – as the tools to solve this problem.”
Raymond added that a competitive food supply chain can only be achieved if all of its links are economically, socially and environmentally sustainable within a Single Market that is not fragmented.
“Farmers need to receive fair prices for their produce and work together with their cooperatives and other processing companies to produce high quality, high value, nutritious food for the consumers both in the EU and in third countries,” he said. “This cannot be done without research, innovation and, most of all, the involvement of all links in the food chain.”
Developing alternative export markets should also be a priority, according to the NFU president, given that the Russian embargo has effectively closed that market to a number of products, including fresh produce, milk and dairy, and meat. “Trade agreements can contribute to developing our business opportunities with third countries but they need to be balanced and fair,” he said.
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