No quick and easy fix to food price issue, EU official admits

By Hannah Black and Sarantis Michalopoulos | EURACTIV.com

28-04-2017

There will be no easy solution to high food prices in Europe unless the supply chain is made transparent and farmers get organised to take a bigger slice of the market, a European Commission official has warned.

Haniotis: "The way markets work on paper and in reality are not the same."
[Eduards Osis/Flickr]

This article is part of our special report Farmers under pressure.

The way markets work on paper is different from reality, admitted Tasos Haniotis, a senior official at the European Commission’s agriculture directorate.

Speaking at EURACTIV earlier this week, Haniotis said that imperfections in the agri-food supply chain meant “price rises are always transferred to consumers” who end up bearing the cost.

“And when prices fall, producers suffer but the savings are not passed on to consumers,” said Haniotis, who is Director for Strategy and Policy Analysis at DG Agriculture.

Haniotis took part in a EURACTIV event on Tuesday (25 April), where agri-food stakeholders shared their views on how the post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy should look like in order to ensure farmers’ income as well as fair prices for consumers.

 

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