Farmers put it in few words: until now they did the work, and the buyers walked away with the biggest profit. The Ministry of Agriculture is now proposing to change the rules - with two draft laws, of which the amendments to the Law on Agriculture and Rural Development have been published on the National Electronic Register of Regulations (ENER).

The price before the purchase, not after

The draft Law on the Regulation of Agricultural Product Markets introduces a rule that sounds obvious: organised purchasing of produce will be allowed only for companies and sole traders entered in a Register of Buyers. The register will be kept by the ministry, and part of the data will be public, so a farmer will be able to check whether a buyer is registered and for which products.

Purchases will have to be made on the basis of a written contract. If there is no fixed price agreed in advance, the buyer will have to display the price, or the method used to calculate it, clearly and visibly before buying starts - and the method must be "clear, understandable, verifiable and available to the contracting parties". On delivery, the farmer will receive a receipt stating the quantity, quality, price, total value and payment deadline.

Buyers will need working, certified scales. For products where there is a higher risk of late payment, the government will be able to demand proof of financial capacity - a bank guarantee, a credit line or payment insurance. And to register, a buyer must have no outstanding debts to farmers established by a final court ruling.

Fines by company size

The second change, to the Law on Agriculture and Rural Development, gives the rules teeth. Fines will no longer be the same for everyone. For violations in purchasing, a micro company would pay from 700 to 1,000 euros, a small one from 1,500 to 2,000, a medium one from 5,000 to 6,000, and a large one from 8,000 to 10,000 euros. The responsible person in the company can be fined 300 to 500 euros, and for certain violations a temporary ban on operating, from three months to two years, is also foreseen. Punishable offences include buying without being entered in the register, failing to pay for purchased produce, and unlawful changes to contracts.

"Only with fines can you bring in some kind of order. People will know who is buying, how and at what price," say farmers who grow early vegetables.

On paper, this is one of the more sensible proposals for the countryside in a long time. But paper is the easy part. The register, the contracts and the certified scales mean something only if the State Agricultural Inspectorate actually shows up at the buying points in season, when the trucks are queueing and the price is being agreed on the spot. No draft law can guarantee that.