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.

“We would, however, like to see it [statutory code of practice] implemented as a matter of urgency to introduce a fair trading framework, restore a degree of balance to trading relationships and underpin the continued growth of Ireland’s agri-food sector,” he said.

President of the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) John Bryan said the Government needed to close loopholes in food labelling legislation, which is “misleading consumers and short-changing producers”.

He also hit out at the Government’s delay in introducing a statutory code of practice for the grocery sector.

On food labelling, the IFA president said it must firstly serve consumers, by upholding their right to clear and straight forward information on the origin of product, and secondly, it must safeguard producers by ensuring transparency and fair competition from imported product.

“To give the consumer an informed choice on all meats, similar to that currently on beef, the Government must legislate so that there is an obligation on all food business operators, retailers and the whole food catering and service sector, to say where their product is produced,” said Mr Bryan.

The IFA said the following measures needed to be introduced in the wake of the horsemeat scandal:

*Any serious breach in regulations or lapse in standards that damages the reputation of the Irish food sector, should lead to proportionate penalties including the possible loss of a licence for the processor involved;

*The Department of Agriculture must introduce transparency in the supply chain and publish the names of companies importing meat and the volumes involved, on a monthly basis;

*Only Irish raw materials be used in meat products labelled and sold as Irish;

*Clear and accurate labelling must be implemented, to include the retail sector, butchers, food service and restaurants.