The Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) welcomes the recommendations of the ACCC’s Perishable Agricultural Goods Inquiry Report and supports calls for new fair trading law to address harmful practices arising from bargaining power imbalance.
VFF Chicken Meat Group President Vince Croston said the chicken meat industry in particular has been subjected to unfair contract laws for far too long.
“Australians on average consume almost more chicken products per capita than any other country, but many growers simply aren’t seeing any benefit at all from this local demand.”
“We’ve known this has been a huge problem for farmers for many years and we hope this power imbalance they face against the retailers and processors in the supply chain is rectified.”
“For the viability of the industry,it’s critical farmers receive a fair and balanced price for the world-class product they deliver.”
Mr Croston said the VFF had been advocating for a review into competition failures negatively impacting farmers and is looking forward to key aspects of the Report being adopted.“
We strongly support the introduction of an economy-wide unfair trading practises prohibition to address conduct that causes enormous harm to businesses.”“
It’s also essential that the current voluntary Food and Grocery Code becomes mandatory to set standards and benchmarks for grocery retailers and wholesalers.”“
All we are asking for is a fairer system and one that tips the scales of balance back towards our farmers,” Mr Croston said.