IFA president Eddie Downey said the new legislation doesn’t go nearly far enough to address the imbalance of power in the food supply chain. He said the failure of the legislation to regulate below-cost-selling leaves it toothless.

“Farmers will judge the legislation on the basis of how retailers behave. We cannot have a repeat of the outrageous discounting by retailers that occurred in the fruit and vegetable sector last Christmas,” he said.

“IFA’s position has always been that an independent Ombudsman should be appointed by the Government, similar to the Groceries Code Adjudicator in the UK, to oversee and implement this legislation. IFA is concerned that the proposed new authority (Competition and Consumer Protection Commission) will not be sufficiently independent to provide anonymity and confidentiality to suppliers, and this will deter them from making complaints and disclosures.”