Stop to unfair commercial practices in the agri-food sector: Coldiretti welcomes the publication in the Official Journal of the legislative decree prohibiting them, in implementation of a European Union directive. The ban comes particularly timely at a time when speculation on food underpays agricultural producers who are forced (at the same time) to face heavy increases in production costs, from fuels to fertilizers and from machinery to packaging to feed to feed livestock.
With the new legislative provision, long urged by Coldiretti, a ban has been triggered for 16 unfair practices ranging from non-compliance with payment terms (no more than 30 days for perishable products) to unilateral changes to contracts; Double-discount online auctions are prohibited and many guarantees are imposed to protect agricultural producers. According to Coldiretti, “a virtuous path is thus created, aimed at guaranteeing an equitable distribution of value along the entire supply chain, at a time when many agricultural companies are selling below cost, also due to unfair practices that unload on the weakest link of the the costs of Christmas commercial promotions ».
The president of Coldiretti, Ettore Prandini, says that “the approval of the rules against unfair practices in the food trade represents a historic turning point to guarantee a fair price for farmers and ranchers, in a situation in which for every euro spent by consumers for ‘purchase of food less than 15 cents in Italy goes to remunerate the agricultural product ”.