New EU role for Healy in COPA
IT’S pretty much all happening at the moment for Galway’s new national IFA President Joe Healy – he’s now been elected Chairman of an influential European farm representative group.
The Athenry man has taken over as Chairman of the COPA Working Party on the Food Chain – a high level group representing farmers across all EU member states.
The COPA (the Committee of Professional Agricultural Organisations) Food Chain Working Party has as its main aim, ‘the tangible reform of the food chain in Brussels’.
Joe Healy said that it was great honour to be elected to his new role adding that he was committed to working through COPA to convince the political system of the need for primary producers to be treated with more equality.
He said that the work of the COPA committee he now chaired would complement the efforts of the IFA in Ireland to ensure the effective enforcement of the new Grocery Regulations.
“Across all EU Member States, there is an urgent need for a rebalancing of power in the food supply chain. The aggressive behaviour of dominant retailers towards smaller suppliers, particularly vegetable, fruit and potato growers, must be stopped.
“Farmers need the protection of statutory legislation in all Member States. The Voluntary Supply Chain Initiative (SCI) undertaken by the Commission is clearly not working for primary producers,” said Joe Healy.
He added that if it continued unchecked, retail power and big business would destroy the Irish and European family farm structure and undermine food security for the EU’s 500 million consumers.
He said that strong legislation was needed at European level to address an issue of critical importance to all farmers across Ireland and the EU.
“Governments across all Member States must support the Commission proposal that all large multinationals, including retailers and processors, will be obliged to publish their profits in each member state,” said Joe Healy.