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Bid to provide clearer picture of food market

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has signed a statutory instrument that will require Ireland to provide the EU with additional data on the prices paid to farmers for food.

Charlie McConalogue (pictured) said that he was committed to bringing Increased transparency to all elements of the supply chain, and that increased price-reporting was an important tool in strengthening the position of farmers.

The new price-reporting obligations apply to the meat and dairy sectors, and are aimed at addressing gaps in the amount of information about prices at various stages of the supply chain – particularly the prices at which processors sell food products, and the prices at which retailers buy them.

Ahead of the implementation of these changes at EU level, the department says that it has been providing more detailed data on prices on its Beef PriceWatch app.

New watchdog planned

The minister also said that his department was drafting legislation needed to set up a new Office of the Food Ombudsman.

This will analyse and reporting on prices and market data in Ireland, as well as enforcing the EU (Unfair Trading Practices in the agricultural and food supply chain) Regulations 2021 that came into effect on 1 July.

This directive is aimed at levelling the playing field between smaller suppliers and larger buyers throughout the agricultural and food-supply chain.