New steps towards transparency of the food chain

On September 11 the European Commission gave its approval to adopt in the coming weeks a series of rules that improve the transparency of pricing at different stages of the food chain.

This initiative aims to make detailed price information available to the public, as agrifood products move along the food chain. These measures, which will begin to be applied from January 1, 2021, will affect products such as meat, dairy products, wine, cereals, oilseeds and protein crops, olive oil, sugar or fruits and vegetables, so that Purchase and sale price differences in the different links will provide information on intermediate costs such as transportation, insurance, storage, etc.

Basically, each Member State must communicate to Brussels price and market data at different points in the supply chain. In this way, the Commission recognizes the current “information imbalance” among the information that producers provide with respect to the rest of the chain’s agents, which puts farmers and ranchers at a clear disadvantage.

In fact, according to the report prepared by COPA-COGECA ‘Foster the positioning of farmers and agricultural cooperatives in the food chain’, these imbalances are an incessant downward pressure on production prices. So a few distributors are the business partners of some 13.4 million farmers and 310,000 food businesses across the EU.

At the same time, this organization proposes the creation of a “European Food Trade Agency”, whose main mission is to provide independent advice on issues related to the food chain and contribute to making it more transparent and fair.

These rules of the European Commission will be complemented by the directive that prohibits unfair commercial practices and by the legislation of producer organizations.

The Organization of Entities of the Agrifood Social Economy of Andalusia, ES Andalucía, ensures the interests of its associates, as well as the promotion of export and internationalization that provides added value to the product and the entire value chain. From ES Andalucía, we maintain a constant dialogue with the institutions to promote initiatives aimed at the social, labor and economic improvement of its associates, in addition to offering advice on developments in the different agri-food sectors.