Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 13 July 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

General Scheme of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. John Enright:

I will answer the first question regarding who the regulations would apply to. I think it would apply to the big five, on a market share basis. I understand France has legislation relating to the cost of production issue, which would be worth looking at. The groceries order was abolished in 2006. We can look at the developments in our liquid milk sector since then. It is a good example of what has gone wrong. Farmers are told almost daily that they need to be more sustainable. At the same time, people telling us to be more sustainable will not support us by having a ban on below-cost selling. There is a huge contradiction. If people want farmers to be more sustainable, they have to support them. Telling farmers to be more sustainable then allowing products to be sold below cost is ridiculous. If legislation was in place to ban below-cost selling, although it would not solve the problem, it would certainly help.

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