The Canadian grocery code of conduct is still in development but farmers could benefit from improved transparency within the food supply chain once it is implemented.
Ontario Conservative MP Lianne Rood said farmers who deliver produce to grocery stores face many fees to have their products on the shelves. She told the agriculture committee studying food price inflation that a truck can be fined for arriving 10 minutes late yet still have to wait hours to unload.
“We have also heard farmers being charged a fine if their truck is speeding one kilometre over the speed limit in the distribution centre’s yard at some point,” she said.
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Scott Ross, executive director of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, said transparency is one of the core principles in the code.
“There is not a sense among farmers that they have an understanding of how fees are calculated and how they are being levied against them,” he said. “I can attest to the fact that one of the frustrations we hear time and again is farmers don’t understand what is behind the calculations that are being levied against them in deductions and there’s not necessarily itemized lines of what those deductions even are in the first place.”
Rood said she is worried about the future of Canadian farmers and asked how the code would help them.
Ross said the code won’t fix all the problems but it will build a framework to drive toward transparency, contractual certainty and the principles of fair dealing.
CFA has said the code must be mandatory and enforceable.
The discussions about the code remain largely confidential but Ross, who is involved in its development, said the process is nearing the stage where it could be presented.
“I think we are at the final stages of development of the code and are moving into a phase of consultation and implementation in very short order,” he said.
