Commissioner Hansen told by ICMSA that EU-wide ban on below-cost food selling “the first critical step” needed on farmer margins

Speaking following a meeting with the EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Food, Mr. Christophe Hansen, the President of ICMSA, Denis Drennan said that he welcomed the positive comments made by the Commissioner since his appointment and specifically on the need to work collaboratively in a manner that focussed on farm incomes.  Mr. Drennan said that farmers would await “with much interest and anticipation” the publication of the Commissioner’s Plan to see whether his pronouncements moved past the usual well-worn expressions of understanding and sympathy into real action and policy that would address the twin problems of increasing farmer margin and incomes while lowering the regulatory burden and costs.

“It’s been obvious for a very long time now that the CAP alone cannot deliver these objectives and EU farm policy must focus on delivering improved returns from the marketplace for farmers.  I was hugely encouraged to hear Commissioner Hansen saying unambiguously that he intended putting economic and social sustainability of farmers on a parity with environmental sustainability. The elevation of environmental sustainability over everything else has proved unworkable and has resulted in the farmers paying everyone else’s environmental costs in the transition to lower emissions food production”, said Mr. Drennan.

The ICMSA President said that the EU actions on UTPs (Unfair Trading Practices) have to date not delivered for ordinary farmers and focussing on PO’s and other mechanisms will not solve the problems.

“The very first thing Commissioner Hansen should do – both as an end-in-itself and as a signal about the change in policy direction – is to ban ‘below cost’ selling across the EU.  This is the first critical step towards reforming production models and ensuring that particularly retail corporations are stopped from forcing farmer primary-producers to subside retail sales promotions.  Everyone knows farmers’ costs and revenues, but the rest of the food supply chain is allowed retreat behind ‘commercially sensitive information’ and refuse to divulge their own margins. The Commissioner needs to put a stop to this and ensure that the farmers doing 99% of the work in producing the food get a proportionate margin. That’s the real test here:   If the Commissioner fails on this, then the steady year-on-year disappearance of the EU’s family farms will continue to be replaced by factory-scale industrial farms – which is in no one’s interest”, he said.

On regulation, the ICMSA President said that he remains concerned that the Strategic Dialogue on Agriculture will lead to further regulation on farming and he told the Commissioner very clearly that this cannot happen.“The EU needs to move away from the discredited and cumbersome regulatory model to a model of collaboration with farmers that address issues of concern.  The regulatory burden on farmers is, bluntly, ridiculous and the EU needs to start eliminating regulations that are no longer necessary -if they ever were – and start working with farmers to develop a sustainable future. It’s time to move past expressions of understanding and sympathy and into concrete measures that will help turn the situation around”, concluded Mr. Drennan.

Ends     23 January 2025

Denis Drennan, 086-8389401

President, ICMSA.

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Cathal MacCarthy, 087-6168758

ICMSA Press Office