Special legislation to regulate relationships between food producers and retail chains will be reintroduced, most probably as of January 1, the government decided at an away-from-home session in Nové Sady (Nitra Region) on Wednesday, August 22. A similar law introduced by Robert Fico's first government (2006-10) was scrapped by the 2010-12 centre-right government.
"The aim of the law is to introduce measures to prevent retail chains from misusing their economic power, create proper conditions for bolstering market supervision ... and conditions for increasing the share of quality Slovak food products on the domestic market," stated the Agriculture Ministry in the material approved by the cabinet, as quoted by the TASR newswire. 'Inappropriate conditions' in business relations between food producers and retail chains include, for example, requiring payments from producers for placing their products on the shelves of supermarkets.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.