Green light from Brussels to the Community directive against unfair commercial practices along the agri-food chain. A measure that has been awaited for ten years and strongly supported by Italy to protect agricultural and industrial processing companies and associations in transactions with large-scale retail chains. Businesses will thus have the tools to cope with increasingly volatile markets, even if all citizens-consumers will benefit from them, thanks to greater guarantees in terms of economic, social and environmental sustainability of the food supply chain.
After the black smoke of last December 12, yesterday the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission, at the end of a supplementary trialogue convened urgently by the EU rotating presidencies - the Austrian one expiring at the end of the year and the Romanian one which will take over for the first half of 2019 – have in fact reached an agreement to ban behaviors that often unilaterally damage companies.
There are 16 unfair practices banned by the European provision: from the last minute cancellation of orders, to late payments to suppliers (which will now have to reach a maximum of 30 days for perishable products and 60 for all the others, from unilateral changes to contracts, non-payments to suppliers for unsold goods.
For the chief negotiator of the Parliament and rapporteur of the directive, Paolo De Castro, “now 100% of European farmers and 98% of the food sector will be protected. In fact, the minimum turnover threshold of agricultural and food companies within which the new rule against unfair and immoral practices will be applied to all Member States has been increased from 50 to 350 million euros”. In Italy, out of over 7 thousand active companies, 32 will remain excluded for now. Companies such as Barilla, Ferrero, Cremonini and a few others, which however may be included among those beneficiaries with higher turnover thresholds through a new national law to be launched in the coming months.
“It is an excellent result – explained De Castro – that we managed to obtain after just eight months of negotiations after the presentation of the proposal by the commissioner, Phil Hogan. Furthermore, we have multiplied by seven the perimeter of application of the directive, which in reality will also go beyond European borders. In fact, the new rules will also have to be respected by buyers of agri-food products who have their registered offices in third countries". "We have not forgotten - continues the Pd MEP - nursery gardening, animal feed, tobacco and cotton which will now be protected like all other food and agricultural products".
Among the other qualifying points of the directive, contracts between suppliers and buyers will have to be written. And those who suffer injustices will be able to denounce them personally, or through associations, maintaining their anonymity. The buyer will not be able to initiate commercial retaliation, while the law enforcement authority, which will be established at the national level, will have the obligation to act within certain times.
Among the first immediate reactions, Coldiretti said that it is a "fundamental step for the future of the European agri-food sector, which recognizes the existence of a commercial imbalance that favors speculation along the supply chain and the need to intervene to guarantee fairer treatment for small and medium-sized agri-food enterprises". Hence, for the president of the agricultural organization, Ettore Prandini, the need to "remedy a profound injustice, making the food distribution chain more equitable, which today sees agricultural products underpaid, often below production costs without any benefit for consumers".
For Agrinsieme, the coordination between CIA, Confagricoltura, Copagri and the Alliance of agri-food cooperatives is an excellent result which, however, is in contradiction with the Community objective of increasing the concentration of producers' supply: there remains a strong imbalance between power of organized distribution which could have justified a much higher turnover limit for agricultural enterprises. We hope that this threshold will be raised at the national level".
