Call for code of practice for grocers

Farmers and food and drink firms have called on the Government to urgently introduce a statutory code of practice for the grocery sector as “a matter of urgency.”

Speaking before the Oireachtas committee on agriculture, director of the Food and Drink Industry of Ireland, Paul Kelly, said a statutory code of practice for the grocery sector was urgently needed to address the “unfair trading practices that flow from the imbalance of power between suppliers and retailers”.

Mr Kelly said the examples of unfair trading practices were “many and varied,” but included retrospective price adjustments, retrospective financing of promotions, and other practices that effectively lead to retrospective payments or excessive transfer of risk.