The EU looks to roll out new laws to protect farmers from big retailers. Supermarkets insist they are not the profiteers.
Brussels dithered for years over how to respond to complaints from farmers that they have almost no bargaining power against titans such as Britain’s Tesco and France’s Carrefour. The farmers’ key demand is that the EU should roll out legislation to end so-called unfair trading practices, such as late payments by supermarkets and abusive contracts. Until now, the Commission tried to present itself as a neutral broker in these bitter, complex feuds over the food supply chain.
That all changed Friday, when European Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan launched an unexpected attack on supermarkets in a speech at Dublin Castle and announced he would aim to draft legislation to protect farmers from hypermarket kingpins. Hogan was categorical about who was to blame.
Concretely, supermarkets in particular now enjoy ‘super power’ due to the twin effect of increased globalization and a high level of concentration within Europe,” he said. “This gives them disproportionate leverage over primary producers. “The imbalance of bargaining power between price setters and price takers is stark, leading to a situation where there is a real ‘fear factor’ for farmers of commercial retaliation, late payments and other headaches,” he told his audience in Dublin.
Omsk producers of products have similar problems. And the greatest problems are observed, first of all, with federal trade networks. Omsky Biocluster will monitor the development of the situation in Europe.
Source: politico.eu.
