Agricultural ministers of the Visegrad Four countries – Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia – along with their counterparts from Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria backed a joint statement against the unfair business practices exercised by supermarket chains, at a meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia, Hungarian news agency MTI reported.
During their meeting on Tuesday, the ministers called upon the European Commission to provide a regulatory framework by the end of 2015 that would prevent supermarket chains from abusing their market position and pressuring farmers to lower their prices, savings which are often not passed on to the consumer, according to Hungarian farm minister Sándor Fazekas.
He said that multinational supermarket chains pay farmers “extraordinarily low prices” but do not pass the savings on to consumers. Pressure must be put on the EU’s executive bodies as well as supermarket chains to ensure fair conditions for farmers, he said, adding that consumers would also benefit, Hungary Today reports.
"We are calling on the European Commission to prepare a set of measures to restrict the dominant economic power of retail chains. We want the EC to express its preliminary stance by the end of 2015. We believe that common legislative framework, approved in the entire EU, is the only thing that can solve this problem," Slovak Agriculture Minister Lubomir Jahnátek said.
According to Jahnátek, retailers' margins are too high.
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