Stop the double-discount auctions and the practices that debase the agri-food chain. Just three months after the start of the #ASTEnetevi campaign, promoted by Terra !, Flai-CGIL, daSud and the #FilieraSporca campaign, comes the commitment of a good slice of the Italian GDO to change gear.
Stop the auctions on food products
The first to commit to stop auctions on food products are Federdistribuzione and Conad, who signed the memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Agricultural Policies on June 28, 2017, a Code of Ethics for the purchase of agricultural and agri-food products.
The auctions in question are the basis of the sales below cost proposed in supermarkets, and represent one of the most serious threats to workers' rights and the survival of the first links in the supply chain: farmers and first producers.
The mechanism is as follows. The large-scale retail trade convenes its suppliers on an online platform, asking them to make an offer for a large quantity of a certain product. On the basis of the lowest bid received, it then convenes a second auction with the same suppliers to obtain a further reduction in the price. An unsustainable technique.
The Code of Ethics for Transparency
In addition to renouncing vexatious electronic auctions, the Code of Ethics commits signatories to counteract illegal work and illegal hiring by asking suppliers to register with the Quality Agricultural Work Network.
Large-scale distribution operators who sign the Code of Ethics are registered on the ministry's website and can communicate their commitment either by using an identification mark or by adopting narrative labels, QR Codes, apps that tell the story of the product from the field to the shelf. It will thus be easier for consumers to recognize the brands of large-scale distribution committed to an increasingly ethical supply chain.
The appeal to the Italian GDO
The hope is now that the first signatories of the protocol follow the other protagonists of the Italian GDO. The promoters of the #ASTEnetevi campaign address an appeal to "other important players such as Coop Italia (already very virtuous on the issues of legality, ed), Eurospin and Lidl "so that" they sign this protocol as soon as possible, which represents a first step towards the rebalancing of supply chain relations, which at the moment are too unbalanced in favor of distribution, penalize the production sector and help create fertile ground for the development of unacceptable phenomena, such as exploitation and illegal hiring ".
A professional journalist since January 1995, she has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and periodicals (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). She is the author of journalistic studies on food and has published the book "Reading labels to know what we eat".
