'Rottweiler' Parish wants GCA help on farmgate prices

New EFRA committee chair Neil Parish has promised to lead an inquiry into farmgate prices, and wants the Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA) to help him.

Parish, the Conservative MP for Tiverton and Honiton, told Western Morning News that subsidy support was more important than ever this year, with farmgate commodity prices so low, and said that hehoped to press the GCA, Christine Tacon, over stepping in on behalf of primary producers to help them get a better deal from processors.

Tacon, speaking at the GCA's annual conference today (22 June), said that she had 'enough on her plate' with the issues she is already tasked with tackling.

Parish, once allegedly referred to as a 'rottweiler' by David Miliband due to his 'dogged persistence' addedthat he hoped to help ensure reform of the CAP, to better meet the needs of British farmers, could be part of the negotiations over Britain’s place in the EU, in advance of the in-out referendum.

“I’m trying to put it to (environment secretary) Liz Truss that while we know CAP reform won’t be one of the major issues for negotiation on the EU, it should be in the second tier, and that it can be dealt with as part of these talks,' he toldWestern Morning News. 'We will never have a better opportunity to get a better deal for Britain’s farmers.”