In agriculture, prices and other contractual conditions are a key issue that can be seriously affected by unfair trading practices (UTPs). Copa and Cogeca thus welcome the evaluation report presented yesterday by the European Commission on the implementation of the 2019 Directive aimed at combating these commercial practices.

One of the identified limitations is still the lack of awareness of these new mechanisms within the member states, which is why it is important to highlight them, as stated in the report transmitted to the infoFERMA editorial office.

Adopted in 2019, the Directive on unfair trading practices in business-to-business relationships in the agricultural and food supply chain prohibited 16 unfair practices from negatively affecting farmers and small suppliers.

The report presented yesterday by the European Commission provides an update on the implementation of this directive. Regarding the positive aspect, the report shows that all EU member states have transposed and implemented the directive into national legislation, designating one or more competent authorities to receive complaints and ensure the confidential treatment of information.

Despite this legislation, we continue to observe unfair trading practices in the food supply chain, as reported by the Commission. The most common have been late payments for perishable or non-perishable agricultural and food products (50% and 13%), payments unrelated to a specific transaction (7%), payments requested from suppliers for marketing actions (7%), as well as regarding storage, display, and listing (7%).

Unfortunately, we continue to see a significant percentage of 63% UTPs carried out by retailers and wholesalers. The Commission's report identified that approximately 41% of the detected unfair practices were identified at the retail level (47% in 2022), 36% at the food industry level (27% in 2022), and 22% at the wholesale level (25% in 2022).

In 2023, approximately 1,500 investigations were opened, of which approximately 17% resulted in the finding of a sanctioned violation that led to the collection of approximately 22 million euros in fines.

Even though the Commission acknowledges that awareness of EU rules is still low (38% of respondents were aware), the impact on the agricultural sector exceeds these figures, as approximately 30% of respondents do not complain about such practices for fear of being blacklisted or suffering other forms of retaliation from buyers.

This is why anonymity (and not just confidentiality) must be granted to farmers suffering from these unfair and abusive practices, so that they can effectively complain.

Reacting to this report, Christiane Lambert, President of Copa, stated: "This report is important and quite timely. It shows that it is essential to improve the European mechanism for combating unfair trading practices in the food supply chain.

We must review and update the list of prohibited UTPs and include "selling below cost" and "selling at a loss" among them. We must also broaden the scope of the directive to cover some non-food products, such as flowers and ornaments.

This is why, in the context of the European elections, we urge the Commission to continue its evaluation work in 2025 and to propose a UTP 2.0 in its future work program for the resilience of our agricultural model, the renewal of generations, and the ability to invest in necessary transitions!" (Photo: Freepik)