Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, I agree with the Deputy on the last point. If one considers the trend over the past 15 to 20 years, one will see that primary producers on average had received approximately 30% of the end price of a product sold in a retail outlet. That figure now is approximately 20% and for many products is less than that. Consequently, there has been a squeeze which has forced more competitive pricing because retailers have become much bigger and their systems are much larger and more efficient. Moreover, in many cases, they are very demanding of primary producers. This is the reason producer organisations are needed and the collective response from the European Union on this in the Common Agricultural Policy has been to support actively producer organisations. I accept that more must be done and that it must be done collectively as the European Union because were Ireland to try to do this on its own, it simply would make itself totally price-uncompetitive.

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