It is now over a year since the chair of the Agri-Food Regulator Board Joe Healy wrote to the Minister looking for additional powers to bring transparency to the agri food supply chain. He raised the issue again earlier this year and was given assurances by Minister Heydon that the matter was being progressed. Nothing of note has happened in the intervening period until earlier this month when the matter was raised by Deputy Ged Nash TD in a Dáil question on the issue.

Dáil response

The Minister responded by saying that “I am fully committed to ensuring that An Rialálaí Agraibhia is equipped with the necessary powers to adequately fulfil its function in providing more transparency to all stakeholders along the agrifood supply chain.”

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That bit we already understood was the case but he went on to explain what seems like an undue delay.

He said: “The additional powers recommended in the Regulator’s statutory report are novel powers which exceed those of our European partners. As such, it was necessary to conduct an intensive consultative and legislative process to fully inform the drafting of a new statutory instrument.”

The draft statutory instrument is now with the office of the Attorney General to “complete the final stages of its legal scrutiny.

Since the office was formally launched in late 2023, there has been limited scrutiny of its operation. Its core function is to enforce the EU’s unfair trading practices legislation in Ireland and it has also responsibility to bring greater transparency to the agri food supply chain. It has produced a series of reports across several sectors at this stage and currently has price dashboards in place across a number of commodities including beef and dairy.

Good prices mean less attention

The establishment of the office coincided with a period of generally improving prices. This has meant that there have been relatively few demands made on the organisation for intervention. The likelihood of suppliers crying foul on the supply chain are greatly diminished if the are relatively happy with the price they are receiving. However, that does not mean that the Agri-Food Regulator can afford to be complacent. It has been a weakness that they have only been able to request as opposed to demand information from the supply chain beyond the farm gate. To date, the processing sector has complied with requests for information as have the majority of but not all retailers. It was the failure to have 100% compliance by the retail sector that triggered the board’s request for additional powers to compel compliance.

When Joe Healy spoke at an Irish Farmers Journal event at the recent Ploughing Championships, he referred to the importance of getting the legislation right at this stage as opposed to getting it quickly. The need to get it right cannot be disputed, especially as it had been widely predicted that the original legislation was weak in requiring compliance. The fact that prices have been satisfactory in the most part outside the tillage sector has meant that little attention has been given to the delay in getting the extra powers.

The office cannot intervene on prices but it does help bring transparency to the supply chain and has started to show where the money goes in the beef sector beyond the farm gate. At times when markets are weak, transparency becomes particularly important as without seeing where the money goes, suspicion is created among farmer suppliers.

The Minister has promised delivery of the additional powers requested and his recent answer to the Dáil question suggests that progress is being made. It is essential that that this moves from promise to delivery as soon as possible.