The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association has launched a poster campaign to highlight the widening gap in the food price chain - the difference between what farmers receive and what consumers pay.
The Consumers Association of Ireland is backing the campaign to get Government action to stop profiteering by market middlemen.
The ICMSA president, Mr Pat O'Rourke, said that, based on official CSO statistics, for every euro spent on milk farmers receive only 36 cent. Farmers receive 38 cent out of every euro spent on beef and in the case of bread get only eight cent per euro.
"According to the CSO national average figure for July the current price paid to farmers for liquid milk is 30 cent per litre, whereas the price paid per litre of milk at retail level is 85 cent. The widening food price gap is certainly not due to the amount paid to farmers. The percentage of total consumer expenditure on basic food items which goes to farmers has declined sharply over the years," Mr O'Rourke said.
He said the widening food price gap was worrying for both consumers and farmers.
The chairman of the Consumers Association, Mr Michael Kilcoyne, said he fully favoured a combined approach by consumers and farmers to stop profiteering by the supermarket middlemen.
Both Mr O'Rourke and Mr Kilcoyne pointed out that the actions of retail multiples were ensuring that both farmers and consumers suffered. This abuse of a dominant position was outlawed under competition legislation.
Mr O'Rourke said a compulsory system of beef price transparency, that protected both farmer and consumer interests, operated in the US under federal legislation. The ICMSA has proposed a similar system to the Government and to the European Commission.
Mr O'Rourke and Mr Kilcoyne called jointly on the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, to act on her own statement that there was need to examine the growing price gap between the farm gate and consumer plate.
They said the ICMSA and Consumers Association would welcome this examination and participate in any committee the Tánaiste might establish to ensure that the interests of both farmers and consumers were protected.