Horticulture the next port of call for regulator’s spotlight

The Agri-Food Regulator is currently focusing on improving transparency in fruit and vegetable markets, with requests for information gone out to players in the supply chain to inform the office’s reporting.

Horticulture is the second sector that the regulator has set its sights on, after an unsuccessful attempt to cast some light into the egg sector earlier this year.

The regulator did not receive replies from some retailers, which meant that the body was left in a position where it could only report on information already in the public domain.

Additional powers

A request for additional powers was submitted to Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue after this became apparent, but no amendments to agri-food supply chain legislation had been put before the Oireachtas before the general election was called.

The regulator’s head of corporate services Aidan Kelly told the national potato conference in Meath on Thursday that the closing date for the horticulture industry to submit information was set for this Friday.

Kelly said that some businesses requested extensions to this deadline when he spoke at the Irish Farmers Association-organised (IFA) conference.

“We have ongoing engagement with the horticulture sector. What we are looking for is specific information on 13 different products at the moment,” he commented.

“We have engaged with people before this specific request went out.

“We told them what we were hoping to achieve, how we were hoping to achieve it and we told them at some stage in the next couple of weeks, you will be actually getting a request for specific information from the regulator.

“We will go through the same process as the egg sector and we will see where that takes us.”

Regulator success

Kelly stated that the recent court prosecution of a cattle processor under unfair trading practices regulation shows that the regulator’s system of enforcement can work for farmers and growers.

“It gave us a great sense of achievement to bring this from complaint stage all the way through the court process and I would hugely encourage anybody to come forward to the regulator if you have a complaint or if you think you have a complaint,” he said.

“We don’t expect you guys to understand the ins and outs of the regulations - they are complex, they need somebody with a legal background sometimes to interpret the different ways they can be seen or understood.

“But if there is anyone here today who thinks they have been treated unfairly in the last while by the buyer of their products, please come and talk to us.

“You might say that the complaint came in late last year, but we only got all the paper together and got proceedings under way by the end of May.

“It is quite a quick process when all the bits of paperwork and all the evidence is gathered.”

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