IFA President Eddie Downey, who was recently elected Chairman of the COPA-COGECA Working Party on the Food Chain, welcomed EU Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan’s comments yesterday in relation to fairness in the food chain and called for EU legislation.
IFA President Eddie Downey has said he will meet Commissioner Hogan in the coming weeks and the issue of fairness in the food chain would be high on the agenda.
The IFA President said he had set more equity for primary producers as a clear objective for his time as Chairman of the COPA-COGEGA Working Party on the Food Chain and Commissioner Hogan’s support in Europe would be critical to making progress.
Mr Downey said, “If unchecked, retail power and big business will destroy the Irish and European family farm structure and undermine food security for the EU ‘s 500 million consumers. Effective legislation is needed at European level to address this issue.”
Speaking to RTE News, Mr Hogan accused supermarkets and retailers of driving down the price of beef because of their dominant market position. He said he was very concerned that there appeared to be no effort to share information in order to ensure that the regulatory system in place guarantees quality. He said: “We can only do that with a well-trained and well-informed agricultural producer who actually survives these penal times in relation to the squeezing of the market share and the squeezing of the price.”
