European food lobby resists EU drive for mandatory price reporting

A European Commission initiative to improve price transparency in Europe’s agricultural industry and make the market more efficient has met resistance from the main lobby group for Europe’s food and drink industry.

In a report published Wednesday, Fooddrinkeurope (FDE) – which represents European trade bodies, food manufacturers, and agricultural producers and processors – said “transparency is not always possible nor desirable”.

The EC is currently in the process of updating its agricultural policy and wants to provide farmers with more market information and price certainty.

The group, however, said the market has enough price transparency and companies are unwilling to provide support to initiatives to extend it.

Pointing to a paper from Ghent University, which the group commissioned and funded, it explained commercial and legal reasons behind its position.

“Excessive price transparency can reduce operators’ negotiating capacity and thus restrict competition. Market information can be misinterpreted and contribute to a distorted picture of the supply chain,” it said, adding that sharing price information can lead to collusion.

The report explained it believes there is already “sufficient market transparency, from both public and private sources, for all stakeholders to get a comprehensive overview of agricultural markets” pointing to examples such as the EC’s weekly commodity dashboards, AMIS, USDA, and the World Bank.