Supermarket announcements of dozens of slashed food prices will be the first real test of the new Agri-Food Regulator, Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) president Denis Drennan has said.

Drennan stated that the regulator must verify that all price reductions are borne fully by the retailers themselves and not passed back along the supply chain to hit farmers who are already subjected to tight margins.

He maintains that the office was set up to tackle issues including supermarket price wars and that early January food price reductions are an opportunity for the body to use transparency powers as a means of showing which element of the supply chain is bearing the cost of the cuts.

Transparency

The ICMSA leader said that, despite "much fanfare" at the passing of agri-food supply chain legislation, "We have heard little of it since."

“This is their first chance to show the farmers – and the utterly dominant supermarkets – that they actually intend doing the job they were set up to do.

“Transparency is one of its key roles and it needs to provide clear information on who is carrying the cost of these reductions.

“This is the acid test; they are either going to show that they are committed and take their job seriously, or they join the herd of ever-increasing herd of quangos and State agencies who exists to no discernible purpose,” Drennan insists.