Mairead McGuinness Fine Gael MEP

Mairead McGUINNESS TELLS LIMERICK CONFERENCE

Ireland East MEP, Mairead McGuinness has said the biggest challenge for the dairy sector is the impact of the increasing imbalance of power between those who produce milk and those who sell it to the final consumer.

Addressing the ICMSA AGM in Limerick today (Saturday) McGuinness said that all around the globe farmers face the very same challenge, yet the issue has not been tackled effectively because of an unwillingness to address competition law and how it interacts with primary producers.

“The EU’s CAP reform proposals acknowledge that there is a problem in the food supply chain and that over time farmers receive an ever decreasing share of the final retail price paid for food.

“Unless this is addressed returns to farmers will decrease over time, while profits elsewhere in the chain increase.
“Proposals to strengthen producer and interbranch organisations as outlined in the ‘Milk Package’, likely to be voted on in the European Parliament early next year, mark a step towards dealing with the problem but do not go far enough,” McGuinness said.

She said the EU continues to focus on how to strengthen producers negotiating ability “but fails to tackle the elephant in the room – how to decrease the power of the few in the retail sector who control what we eat, what we pay and ultimately how much farmers make.”

“It is time that there was a more open debate about this imbalance of power and more concrete and effective action proposed to deal with it,” she added.

She said she has met farmer representatives from across the EU, from Norway and from New Zealand and the issue of retail buying power is top of their agenda.

“In a world where food security is top of the political agenda, we need to examine the dangers inherent in the structure of our food supply chain before allowing the problems to worsen.

“We want sustainable agriculture and a secure food supply chain, but the current structure of power in the chain will not deliver this security of supply or help to promote sustainability,” she warned.

McGuinness said that Ireland can and will expand milk output in a quota free era post 2015.

“It is the beginning of a new era for farmers, with many young farmers excited by the prospects of producing more milk without restriction, but it is a duty of the policy makers to ensure that the system they are supplying into is fair and open,” she said.

McGuinness said that while FAO-OECD outlook indicates that global agricultural outlook for the current decade is positive, continued price and currency volatility and huge input costs are likely to present considerable challenges.