Drive to increase transparency in the food supply chain underway
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue confirmed a Food Ombudsman will be established later this year, during a meeting of the Beef Taskforce on Thursday. Picture: Chris Bellew, Fennell Photography.
The ninth meeting of the Beef Taskforce, which was held last Thursday, was presented with three consultancy reports commissioned on market transparency issues.
The first two reports produced by Grant Thornton, on competition law in the beef sector, and on market specifications and requirements have already been published and are available on the Department’s website.
A draft of the third report on the price composition along the supply chain has been made available to Taskforce members for comments.
This report will be published after a discussion at the next meeting of the Taskforce in June.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue said he was “pleased” to see that the three market transparency studies will be concluded soon.
“Notwithstanding the challenges in relation to availability of data along the supply chain in the required level of detail, these reports will act as an important starting point for driving increased transparency,” he added.
“They will also provide the foundations for further work on transparency, which will be carried forward by the new office of the National Food Ombudsman to be established later this year.Â
“That office will have a specific remit in relation to price reporting and analysis.”
