For most Irish food producers

producer price indices for liquid milk.

In their latest report, they show that just 28pc of the final retail milk price was retained by the farmers in 2016 compared to 43pc in 1995. There is no official data on the price paid by retailers to the processor so it is not possible to conclude what proportion of the price the retailer retains relative to the processor.

So what can the European Commission do to strengthen the position of farmers in the supply chain? The last CAP reform emphasised the role of short supply chains, an issue that is likely to re-emerge in the next policy round.

Short supply chains, essentially where the “middleman” is cut out, involve the farmer placing themselves closer to the consumer by perhaps selling directly in a farmers’ market. This may be an avenue to be exploited in some Member States but unlikely to provide any relief to the mass commodity exporting Irish agri-food sector.

There is also likely to be additional support made available for producer groups and co-operatives that would allow farmers to come together and trade as a group, thus increasing their market strength. We have some evidence of the success of this with our dairy co-operatives here in Ireland.

Finally, one of the recommendations arising from the Agricultural Markets Task Force, which reported last autumn, was to enact legislation to adopt a mandatory price reporting system, similar to the one in the US, where processors of a certain size are required to report the price of each sale.

This would facilitate a detailed analysis of pricing right across the supply chain thus improving price transparency, which would lead to very interesting reading for many farmers.

While we are awaiting for this information, all citizens, farmers and consumers alike, are invited to express their views on the functioning of the food supply chain in Europe through Commissioner Hogan’s online consultation.

RESEARCHERS CONCLUDED THAT THE DIFFICULTIES IN SECURING PRICE INFORMATION FOR MANY FOOD PRODUCTS MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO ANALYSE THE PRICE CHAIN