The French government has proposed legislation that would increase fines for food processors hiding their financial results from farmers and the general public.

While all French-based companies are obliged by law to publish a basic set of financial documents each year, the bill notes that “several major industrial players in the sector do not file their accounts”. Penalties for this offence currently range from €1,500 to €3,000.

The finance ministry said this lack of compliance is “particularly damaging in that it witholds information that would be useful in commercial relations with their suppliers, especially farmers, whose average production costs are common knowledge. As a result, an information imbalance is added to the imbalance in power observed in commercial relations to the detriment of suppliers, all the more when they are totally or partially dependent on their customers”.

To increase transparency in the food chain, the legislation would allow commercial courts to issue injunctions against food processors to force them to publish their accounts, and fine them 2% of their overall daily domestic sales for each day of non-compliance.

The proposed measure directly targets the country’s top dairy and meat processors, which are privately held companies. Lactalis, the world’s largest dairy processor, claims a €17bn annual turnover. Yet the main company in the group has not filed accounts for at least 15 years.

Meat giant Bigard, for its part, boasts €4.3bn in sales – but the group’s meat processing arm’s last posting showed a €1.5bn turnover in 2013, and the financial holding company connecting the whole business last filed accounts for 2008.