The vulnerability of famers across Europe has become more acute during the past four years, according to the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski.
He was speaking at the first meeting of the EU Agri-Food Chain Observatory which involves: farmers; processors; transport and trade operators; distributors and wholesalers; retailer; and training and advisory services.
The commissioner stated that one of the main issues to emerge from the group was a “sense of discontent and mistrust in the functioning of the food supply chain”.
He acknowledged that farmers do not feel as though they are sufficiently rewarded for their work, while at the same time, processors and retailers have felt “unfairly targeted”.
Comments by EU Commissioner
Wojciechowski explained to the meeting that the commission wants to address what he described as the ‘lack of trust’ by farmers.
He stated: “Our farmers are often positioned as the weakest link in the food supply chain, with less bargaining power in the face of larger and more concentrated actors.
“Their vulnerability became more acute during the past four years of successive crises. But these crises have also taken their toll on other actors along the food supply chain.”
He explained that the formation of the new observatory will gather operators from across the supply chain around the same table, alongside the commission and public authorities, to engage in an “open, transparent, and trustworthy manner”.
He outlined the following aims for the group:
- To exchange information and establish a common diagnosis on issues impacting the food supply-chain;
- To deliver increased transparency on costs and margins in the chain;
- To provide expertise, identifying existing and emerging trading practices and contractual arrangements that may have positive or negative impacts on the functioning of the chain.
He explained that in the medium term, the aim of the observatory will be to develop methodologies and indicators to assess and monitor the structure of costs, and the distribution of margins and value-added.
“A fair and well-functioning food supply-chain is a core strategic interest of the European Union,” the commissioner continued.
He referenced the action taken by farmers in recent protests across Europe and the agri issues identified as a priority for many of the main political groupings in the next European Parliament as evidence of the high expectations on the observatory.
“This will obviously present a challenge. Each actor in the chain has their own needs and constraints. If there was an easy solution, we would all know it, and we would have fixed it by now,” Wojciechowski said.
“But it is precisely because of this complexity that we need to come together.”