The European Parliament's Agriculture Committee has approved proposed legislation to strengthen the hand of farmers in the food supply chain.

The proposal, which passed by 38 votes to four, would outlaw some practices including late payments and cancellations of orders, but has been criticised for failing to introduce an outright ban on below-cost selling and full transparency on pricing along the food chain.

Among Irish MEPs, Fine Gael's Mairead McGuinness voted in favour and warned that we will have to ensure that each EU country implements the legislation properly. "My concern is that there will be over-bureaucracy around this," she said. "The UK has a grocery code adjudicator – amazing work being done there. We might look at what's happening there and take some of the best of that."

However, Sinn Féin's Matt Carthy voted against the proposal, saying: "The legislation that's before us doesn't reflect the necessary progress that's required. What we needed was a ban on below-cost selling of food products by retailers – that wasn't included."

Implementation

The full parliament is now expected to vote on the proposal in mid-March.

"The next step is the plenary vote and we are confident that the new EU law could be signed and published in the EU’s Official Journal by the end of March this year, so that our farming communities can benefit from its provisions as soon as possible”, said rapporteur and chief Parliament negotiator Paolo De Castro.

Additional reporting by Phelim O'Neill in Brussels.