Schouten: supermarkets refuse hard price agreements for farmer

Demissionary agriculture minister Carola Schouten is disappointed in the attitude of supermarkets to make the food chain more sustainable. They would refuse hard price agreements for the farmer. She says this in a broadcast of the television program Zembla that will be aired Thursday evening.

Such supermarkets do not want to make firm agreements on paying a higher price to farmers who produce more sustainably. 'I would like to see supermarkets take steps in this direction,' says Schouten in Zembla. 'I would also have liked us to just reach agreements there more quickly.'

The minister has had all the major supermarkets at the table. She says that during these talks the supermarkets mainly mention their own sustainable initiatives. Schouten believes this is insufficient. There are times when I think: boy, why is it taking so long? Why doesn't it happen faster?

Supermarkets are actively resisting a motion from the Dutch Parliament to report annually on how they are making their assortment more sustainable. Supermarkets invoke competition sensitivity, fear administrative burdens and emphasize that they already do so much.

More ambition needed

Schouten calls the contact with supermarkets 'syrupy'. 'I think they could really show more ambition there too. What's more, the call from society is also growing and it's also in their own interest to be transparent about this. In Zembla she argues for a levy on less sustainable products. The agriculture minister had previously stated that she was personally in favour of using fiscal resources, such as VAT, to encourage sustainability.

'As a consumer you can't see the difference in the supermarket between how something has been produced and what that means for the environment,' Schouten said in the television program. Make sure that the levy is not absorbed into the greater whole of the tax, but that it goes into a special fund, for example, so that it can be used to help the farmer with the costs he has to incur in order to become more sustainable. The knife then cuts both ways. The price of conventional and more sustainable will be more equal and at the same time you ensure that the farmer is compensated for the extra costs he has to incur to make that transition.'

Source: New Harvest