Farmers could do with a benchmark deal

AS a farmer I was angered by Competition Authority chairman John Fingleton's annual report (Irish Examiner, March 2) which ignored the fact that farmers get less every year because of the power of the supermarkets to get bigger profits from our food.

He said producer-driven needs have taken precedence over the consumer. The CSO figures show the opposite: we farmers are the producers and our income is back 33% in real terms since 1995.

The problem with our farming organisations is that they have no policies to protect our income, and this does a serious injustice to their members.

I made a submission to the agrivision group last year about an income protection policy that our farming organisations should be pursuing.

I am sure Mr Fingleton heard of such policies as he is protected by two of them - minimum wage and benchmarking.

Would he recommend their removal? I think not.

Mr Fingleton was wrong when he said the groceries order led to higher costs for the consumer. It is there to protect the primary producer, but that alone is insufficient and we need something else.

He said there were very few cases where competition can be harmful to the consumer. True - but the fact is that it is also doing huge damage in other areas.

Minimum wage and benchmarking were inventions plucked out of the sky to protect the standard of living of people like Mr Fingleton.

It's about time now for our farming organisations to do some inventing of their own to protect our sector.

Michael Flynn

Rathgormack

Co Waterford