14 December 2023
Farmer representatives from across Australia convened in Canberra yesterday for a roundtable hosted by the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) with Assistant Minister for Competition Andrew Leigh.
The meeting came as the Federal Government continues its review of competition policy, and as supermarket pricing comes under increased scrutiny with a Senate inquiry set to commence in 2024.
NFF Chief Executive Tony Mahar said it was critical that the concerns of farmers were heard and acted on by the Albanese Government.
“Our members are increasingly frustrated by the imbalance in market power between small family farming businesses, and the large corporates that dominate Australia’s food supply chain,” Mr,, Mahar said.
“Yesterday’s roundtable was an opportunity for industry representatives to put their concerns directly to Government and hopefully get some momentum behind long overdue reform of Australia’s competition settings.
“What we heard is farmers are fed up with the lack of transparency, and worried about the continued consolidation of our supply chains.
“We’re encouraged by the Government’s response to these issues so far, but we know reform is hard, so we need to make sure we’re seeing meaningful changes to give farmers a fair go.”
Issues and policy suggestions highlighted at yesterday’s Roundtable include:
The need for significant competition reform to ensure a sustainable and profitable food production sector in Australia.
- Market price transparency
- Greater resourcing for the ACCC to ensure it has the capacity and powers to effectively monitor and proactively investigate highly concentrated markets with the potential to harm consumers and businesses.
- Greenwashing and prescriptive reporting is already apparent in domestic supply chains. Farmers and industries are being proactive in this space, but with little to no reward.
- Industry Codes of Conduct are valuable but need teeth.
- Agency Agreements - the roundtable discussed the growing use of agency agreements as a legal form of retail price maintenance and called for this to be outlawed