The Department of Agriculture has said that a group is being formed to advance the beef and sheep sectors identified in the Food Vision 2030 strategy, taking into consideration the requirement for the sectors to contribute to achieving the targets set for the agriculture and land-use sector in the Climate Action Plan 2021.
This is as an opposition TD said the Office for Fairness and Transparency in the Agri-Food Supply Chain is “not the regulator that producers require”. The low and unworkable prices that farmers and producers are currently receiving was highlighted in the Dáil by Holly Cairns, Social Democrats agriculture spokeswoman.
She commented that: “Meat factories and larger retailers have a stranglehold on the industry, which this and previous Governments have refused to acknowledge and tackle. We continue to have a system that benefits a few key players and gouges the pockets of ordinary farmers.”
Cairns added that, “We need a food regulator, an independent office with statutory powers to oversee and intervene in the sector. Instead, the programme for government proposed a food ombudsman, a lesser form of oversight, and now that has been watered down further with the creation of an office for fairness and transparency.”
It is expected that Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue will soon publish the bill that will see the establishment of the new office. He has reiterated that the new office will “bring greater transparency all along the agricultural and food supply chain. It will engage with retailers, processors, wholesalers, farmers, fishers, and others on matters affecting fairness and transparency in the food supply chain.