Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022

The Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022 provides for the establishment of a new independent statutory Office, the key objective of which will be to promote fairness and transparency in the agricultural and food supply chain.

The Bill provides that the Regulator will undertake the following key functions:

• a price and market analysis and reporting function. The Regulator will bring greater transparency to the agricultural and food supply chain by carrying out analysis and regularly publishing reports on price and market data, as well as preparing and publishing reports on contingency issues, on its own initiative or at the request of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
• enhancing understanding of, compliance with, and enforcement of agri-food unfair trading law, including being designated as the national Enforcement Authority for the Unfair Trading Practices Directive 2019/633, and any additional Regulations introduced under this Bill. The Regulator will have the powers to investigate suspected breaches; promote alternative dispute resolution procedures between suppliers and buyers; bring proceedings for offences under this Bill; and refer cases to the Director of Public Prosecutions where the Regulator believes that an indictable offence has been committed

The text of the bill is available below and on the Houses of the Oireachtas Website