In response to the EU Commission's Green Paper on Unfair Trading practices, the presidents of European farm lobbyists Copa Cogeca urged EU market Commissioner Michel Barnier to introduce legislation at an EU-level to help tackle unfair and abusive practices in the bloc's food supply chain.

Copa Cogeca leaders met with Mr Barnier on Thursday. Copa President Gerd Sonnleitner stressed after the meeting, "At a time when there is an upcoming reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and a cut in farm spending, its more important than ever to ensure that the market works well for farmers and for agri-cooperatives. The impact of unfair and abusive practices is all too clear."

He said the Green Paper provided the opportunity to act on supply chain abuses and added, "There is a clear need to have a EU-wide legal approach to curb unfair trading practices."

Cogeca President Christian Pees said legislation has already been introduced in some Member States, where the fallacies of self-regulation have been exposed; he was clear in stating that the approach "doesn't work when faced with the huge power of a handful of supermarkets." Copa-Cogeca announced it has commissioned a survey to assess the economic impact of current supply chain relationships and provide examples of bad and unfair trading practices, which it hopes will inform future policy decisions.

In the UK, NFU officials met with the newly appointed Groceries Code Adjudicator this week. Christine Tacon, the new supermarket ombudsperson, will be responsible for policing relationships between large retailers and their suppliers, to ensure supermarket conduct complies with the supply chain Code of Practice. She said on Thursday, "The public want to know that suppliers are being treated fairly and it is vital, in my role as Adjudicator, that I improve the business environment for direct suppliers to the trade. This in turn will help to improve the health of UK farming."

Speaking after the EU meeting with Commissioner barnier, Peter Kendall, Chair of the Copa-Cogeca Working Party added, "A fair and equitable supply chain in the food industry is good for farmers, for processors and retailers; and above all, for consumers. The agri-food industry in the EU is a big player and could be the driving force for green economic growth in the future; but only if we have fairness and transparency."

He urged EU decision makers not to be swayed by retail lobbysists. "We urge Commissioner Barnier and his colleagues to remain strong on this issue, to take on board our EU wide examples of unfair trading practices and to quickly develop proposals on a legislative approach to curb them," he said.

Mr Kendall added that Copa-Cogeca has had a position on imbalances of power in the supply chain since 2007. He said the group favoured a range of options to address abuses, including implementing voluntary codes, but that these must be underpinned by legislation to ensure suppliers have the protection they need. He explained, "When imbalances of power in the food supply chain are used unfairly, we clearly have a problem which can only be solved by legislation."