#ASTEnetevi! With this slogan #Filierasporca and Flai Cgil are conducting an awareness campaign on some mechanisms for the formation of food prices that are destroying agriculture and workers' rights. The initiative, launched on March 24, 2017, warns consumers about the true price of products below cost and calls on the large-scale retail trade and the ministry to put an end to some practices that strangle workers.
#ASTEnetevi from double-discount auctions
The objective of the campaign is to stop the practice of double-declining auctions. A purchasing method that stresses the formation of prices, to the point of resulting in generalized damage to the entire supply chain.
Auctions based on the double-discount mechanism are held online. The large-scale retail trade makes its suppliers sit around a virtual platform, asking them to make an offer for a large quantity of a certain product.
On the basis of the lowest offer, the large-scale retail trade subsequently calls a second online auction, which in a few hours calls the participants to relaunch, with an obvious paradox, to further lower the selling price of that product.
#ASTEnetevi from below cost purchases
Closely related to the mechanism of double-down auctions is the "below cost" sale of food products. An irresistible attraction for many. But which hides distortions that the consumer does not even suspect. And it reduces the intrinsic quality of the product to the minimum terms.
"Mechanisms such as below cost and online auctions destroy the entire agricultural supply chain, because they fundamentally alter the relationships between large retailers and consumers, making the environment and producers pay the highest cost, as well as aggravating the conditions of exploitation of workers and illegal hiring ”, explains Fabio Ciconte, director of Terra! and spokesperson for #FilieraSporca.
The appeal to change gears
The promoters of the campaign are addressing all those responsible for these phenomena. They invite consumers to think about the value of the below cost, leaving it unsold on the shelf. And they urge large-scale distribution and the Ministry of Agricultural Policies to eliminate double-discount auctions. GDO can simply give it up. Instead, the ministry is called upon to outlaw them. A letter to Minister Maurizio Martina (which we attach) clearly clarifies the terms of the question. Moreover, it is known and shared by the minister himself, who said he was "very worried about the double-down auctions and the strong impact they have on Italian agriculture".
ATTACHMENT Letter from Minister Martina
