The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) has called on the office of the newly established Agri-Food Regulator to publish monthly prices received by retailers and processors.

ICMSA president Pat McCormack said that for too long, farmers have known the price they receive and the consumer has known the price they pay, but the bit in between has been a mystery.

He argued that the price paid to dairy farmers and paid by consumers is transparent, but what the processor receives and secondary processors - such as baby food manufacturers - is not.

'Strong signal'

The regulator must send out a strong signal from day one that it is intent on exposing "margin-grabbing" and delivering supply chain transparency if it is to win the confidence of the farmer, he argued.

Farmers, he added, are reserving their judgement on the regulator in the hope that meaningful attention is directed towards food price transparency along the chain.

"The danger here is that the new office just joins the long list of toothless agencies that seem to stand by wringing their hands when confronted with obvious unfairness and discrepancies in the pricing allocated to the different stages of the food supply chain," he said.

Opportunity

The new regulator, he said, has an opportunity to make a real difference and food price transparency is going to be the key initial test, both in terms of overall supply chain fairness and of producing sustainable food.

"Farmers have received many false promises on transparency and we sincerely hope that the new regulator will end that lamentable record in a very constructive way," concluded McCormack.

Read more

Food supply chain bill now law