Contracts in the agri-food supply chain within the framework of the new Common Agricultural Policy

Resumen

The paper is focused on the measures provided for under new EU regulations in an attempt to address the problems arising for the agricultural producers by the CAP reforms of 2003 and 2013; with these reforms the Community radically modified the framework of its agricultural policy, substantially eliminating the (already reduced) forms of market management and making further substantial cuts in the amount of coupled support in favour of an almost sudden (and improvised) switch to a system of direct payments to farmers, largely decoupled from production, as a means of supporting the income of agricultural producers. As a result, the latter suddenly found themselves exposed and forced to operate not on a European scale but rather in a global market, and what is more without any forms of protection.