This registration, in compliance with the Food Chain Act, increases the protection of primary producers and their groups, as it will facilitate the functions of inspection and control of trade relations.
The registration, which will be carried out electronically, will be launched on January 31, 2023, although there will be a transitional period to facilitate its gradual implementation and will be mandatory from June 30.
The Council of Ministers has today approved, on the proposal of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, a royal decree that develops the registration of food contracts of a digital nature in which must be registered, on a mandatory basis, the contracts that are signed with the primary producers and their groups, in compliance with the law of measures to improve the functioning of the food chain, approved in December 2021.
The Register of Food Contracts increases the protection of primary producers and their groups, as it will facilitate the inspection and control functions of the Food Information and Control Agency (AICA) and the enforcement authorities of the autonomous communities, responsible for ensuring compliance with food chain obligations within their competences. In this way, greater legal certainty of commercial relations and a more efficient structuring of the value chain are achieved.
In this context, the royal decree clarifies who are the subjects obliged to register food contracts that, according to the law of the chain, correspond to the buyers who conclude contracts with the primary producers and their groups. It also needs the registration procedure, which will be intuitive and simple, and which must be carried out before the delivery of the products object of the contract, as well as when there are modifications of the contract agreed by both parties.
The regulation also clarifies that those obliged to enter into the contract will be the first buyers when they buy raw milk from farmers. For food contracts concluded as integration contracts, as in the case of fattening products in the poultry sector, the integrator will be obliged to register it in the electronic register.
The registration will depend organically on the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and will be attached to the Food Information and Control Agency. Access will be made through the AICA website (www.aica.gob.es) from the link that will be enabled for access when the royal decree enters into force, the day after its publication in the Official State Gazette.
However, in order to guarantee the operability of the electronic application of the register and to ensure that operators have the necessary resources, the rule clarifies that the registration of food contracts can be made from January 31, 2023, although it will not be mandatory until June 30, 2023.