Professor Thia Hennessy:

On the agrifood regulator, over the last 12 months there has been significant inflation in food prices in general and consumers are not very happy about that. It is probably not the fruit and vegetables that contribute to that and it is probably more the processed products. When I hear the agrifood regulator mentioned quite a lot in the media, people's expectation of that particular office is that it is about delivering lower prices for consumers. So finding a balance between what is a good price for producers and what is a price that helps to alleviate the current cost-of-living crisis will be a very difficult role for the office of the agrifood regulator. There is great resistance among consumers to higher food prices. The retailers and heads of the food companies will say that consumers want more nutritious food and environmentally-friendly food but want to pay less for it. Therefore, the conundrum is that somebody must pay for that. The agrifood regulator has the challenge of balancing consumer expectations and delivering a fair price for producers.