madam president i welcome the work undertaken by mr bové in formulating this report
i also welcome this debate highlighting the need for transparency throughout the food supply chain
transparency is a vital element but the way in which we tackle large retail organisations whose sole motivation is meeting the needs of their shareholders is equally important
their quest to increase market share and profits has had a negative impact on farmers and in some cases processors
currently the market does not reward farmers for the time and money which they invest in farming to produce high quality safe sustainable food
in northern ireland the beef industry is under a lot of pressure and many farms do not break even financially
of course any intervention must be seen in terms of the cap
without this the industry would struggle to survive
we in this parliament need to realise the importance of this policy and the benefit that it provides for our farming sectors
the market has not delivered over a number of years for the dairy or beef sector
we have held many debates in this chamber in relation to the dairy sector in particular
if we want our farmers to compete in a free market we must address the problems within the supply chain third-country imports and the price consumers pay for food taking into account falling farm-gate prices
the role of speculators and the need to reduce volatility in the market must be addressed immediately
import bans and scaremongering by speculators have fuelled a major hike in cereal prices across the world this will have a knock-on effect on the food supply chain
europe has a duty to secure its food supply
the way to do this is not to put farmers out of business or to increase regulation but to ensure fair prices both at farm-gate and at consumer level
