Selling at a loss has been a source of conflict between farmers and businesses for many years. This practice consists of selling a product below the production cost price. Recently, we have seen milk or rice, for example.
To try to tackle this problem, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Commission has approved a new amendment to the Food Chain Law that includes the prohibition of selling at a loss in all its links, including the final consumer. , with unsuccessful results so far.
Now, this bill makes it possible to adapt national legislation to the European Directive on agriculture and food.
The wording now agreed by PSOE and Unidas Podemos establishes that “each operator (in the food chain) must pay the immediately preceding operator a price equal to or greater than the cost of production of said product that said operator has actually incurred or assumed.”
In the case of the final sale of food or food products, the operators “may not apply or offer a sale price to the public that is lower than the actual purchase price of the same”, considering breach of this article as unfair sale.
It will not be the case of sales with losses of food or perishable products that are close to their uselessness. But it will always be necessary to provide clear information on this circumstance to consumers. Likewise, it also excludes “joint offers to gifts to buyers.”
Finally, the agreement contemplates that “the operator that makes the final sale of the product to the consumer may in no case pass on to any of the previous operators its business risk derived from its commercial policy in terms of prices offered to the public.”
Missing measures
Are the measures taken to solve the problem of selling at a loss sufficient? Well, the agrarian associations, although they value positively this legislative advance, they miss additional measures, so that it was really efficient.
Specifically, they focus on three aspects.
– That an official or public body be created to monitor the average production costs of each product, of each of the agents involved in the chain, to verify that sales are not made at a loss
– Check that the exception for perishable products does not become a generalization. Especially in products such as citrus, grapes, vegetables… used as a claim product, which is what they try to avoid.
– Finally, focus on imports from other countries, to avoid unfair competition that often ends up weighing down the prices of European products. Without protecting this aspect, he warns, the law will not be effective.
Facebook Comments
Disqus