Trade relations in the agricultural sector remain a source of tensions between large retailers and farmers, while a legislative proposal is expected at the European level.
Little progress has been made in rebalancing trade relations between farmers and large retailers, despite a draft law introduced by the French government in early February.
The European Commission will also address this issue and is working on a new regulation against unfair business practices, which will be presented in spring 2018.
By 2016, the Commission took action by setting up the “Agricultural Markets Task Force” made up of 12 experts. They released their final report in November 2016, advocating harmonised European legislation to tackle such practices, from which farmers suffer given their limited bargaining power, particularly with large retail outfits.
The Commission will take the recommendations of the task force to formulate its own proposals in the spring.
Among the recommendations, the experts suggest limiting payment periods to 30 days to avoid current delays, and to set the terms of the trade exchange (volumes, prices) by prohibiting any unilateral change without the farmer’s agreement.