Compliance Reporting Buyers
What is a Compliance Reporting Buyer?
A Compliance Reporting Buyer is defined as any natural or legal person (or group of persons) established in the State, who buys agricultural and food products, and had an annual turnover of more than €50,000,000 in the previous year.
What is a Compliance Reporting Buyer required to do?
A Compliance Reporting Buyer is required to:
- designate a suitably qualified staff member to act as liaison officer with the Regulator in relation to the Unfair Trading Regulations, and
- submit an annual compliance report to the Regulator not later than 31st March of each year detailing the buyer’s compliance with the Unfair Trading Regulations to cover the period of the previous calendar year.
Liaison Officer Nomination Form 2025 (pdf 129Kb)
Annual Compliance Report Guidance 2025
(Updated 06 November 2025)
There is a guidance document available to assist Compliance Reporting Buyers to complete their annual compliance report.
Annual Compliance Report Guidance 2025 (pdf 228Kb)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on
Compliance Reporting Buyers Annual Compliance Report
(Updated 06 November 2025)
1. What is a Compliance Reporting Buyer?
A Compliance Reporting Buyer is defined as any natural or legal person (or group of persons) established in the State, who buys agricultural and food products, and had an annual turnover of more than €50,000,000 in the previous year.
2. My business has a turnover of greater than €50m but agri-food products only account for a small portion of the total turnover. Are we a Compliance Reporting Buyer?
You are considered to be a Compliance Reporting Buyer if your total businesses turnover, from your agri-food product buying and your other business activities, is more than €50m annually.
3. What are agri-food products?
Agri-food products are defined as ‘products listed in Annex I to the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) as well as products not listed in that Annex, but which are processed for use as food using products listed in that Annex’.
The list is very extensive, but some broad categories include:
- live animals, live trees and other plants, cut flowers and ornamental foliage, cereals, and milling industry products.
- vegetables, fruit, fish, meat and dairy produce.
- processed products such as chocolate, prepared meals or sauces and processed dairy products (e.g. dairy spreads or yoghurts).
4. What is a Compliance Reporting Buyer required to do?
A Compliance Reporting Buyer is required to:
- designate a suitably qualified staff member to act as liaison officer with the Regulator in relation to the Unfair Trading Regulations, and
- submit an annual compliance report to the Regulator not later than 31st March of each year detailing the buyer’s compliance with the Unfair Trading Regulations to cover the period of the previous calendar year.
5. What is the purpose of the annual compliance report?
The annual compliance report is required to allow the Regulator to monitor compliance with the provisions of the Unfair Trading Regulations and may be used to inform the conducting of risk-based inspections of agri-food buyer businesses. The areas you need to report on are set out in legislation and there is a template report form to complete for this purpose.
6. When is the annual compliance report deadline?
The deadline for submission is 31st March of each year, detailing the Compliance Reporting Buyer’s compliance with the Unfair Trading Regulations to cover the period of the previous calendar year.
The annual compliance report is due to be submitted to the Regulator by 31st March 2026 to cover the period of 2025.
7. Who within the business is responsible for the completion of the annual compliance report?
The report should be completed by a suitably qualified member of staff.
The annual compliance report must, by law, be signed by the director of, or company secretary to, the Compliance Reporting Buyer.
8. Is there a specific template available for the annual compliance report?
Yes, the template for completion is available from the Regulator – please email compliance@agrifoodregulator.ie
9. Is there any additional guidance available to assist Compliance Reporting Buyers in completing the annual compliance report?
There is a guidance document available to assist Compliance Reporting Buyers to complete their annual compliance report, the link to the latest guidance document is available above. However, if you have a specific question regarding the template and require further assistance, please email compliance@agrifoodregulator.ie or phone 01-6019900.
10. Who do I contact if I have a question about completing the annual compliance report template?
If you have a specific question regarding the template, please email compliance@agrifoodregulator.ie or phone 01-601 9900.
11. How do I submit the completed annual compliance report?
The completed annual compliance report can be submitted on the secure online submission portal contained on the template or can be emailed to compliance@agrifoodregulator.ie
12. What are the consequences of not submitting the annual compliance report by the deadline?
If you are a Compliance Reporting Buyer, it is a legal requirement to submit an annual compliance report by the deadline and it is an offence under the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain (Unfair Trading) Regulations not to do so.
13. Do I only need to include information on Irish suppliers?
No, details of all suppliers regardless of whether established in the State or not are required to be submitted by the Compliance Reporting Buyer.
14. Do I have to provide details of supply agreements where the supplier’s turnover exceeds that of the Compliance Reporting Buyer?
Compliance Reporting Buyers are requested to differentiate between suppliers that they regard as having a higher turnover than themselves. For these suppliers, you are only required to provide details of the supplier name, address and product that they are supplying.
15. Where there are several companies combined in a single group structure, is an annual compliance report required for each individual company?
No, a single group submission will suffice where there are several businesses or multiple trading entities combined in a single group structure. In the event the Compliance Reporting Buyer is a group, a list of all the businesses being reported on must be provided in Question 9.
To note: A parent business need only report on behalf of other group businesses if those businesses are also Compliance Reporting Buyers, e.g. a Compliance Reporting Buyer who has a daughter business that buys agri-food products but has a turnover of less than €50m is not required to be reported on by the parent business. Alternatively, each business within the group may submit separate reports.
16. Am I allowed to give details of my suppliers to the Agri-Food Regulator under the General Data Protection Regulation EU/2016/679 (GDPR)?
There is an obligation on buyers to maintain and provide details or copies of records to the Regulator upon request according to Regulation 8(7) of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain (Unfair Trading) Regulations 2023. Details of supply agreements are required to be included in this annual compliance report according to Regulation 7(3)(f) of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain (Unfair Trading) Regulations 2023. This constitutes a legal basis for the processing of data to fulfil a legal obligation of the data controller as specified in Article 6(1)(c) of the General Data Processing Regulation EU/2016/679.
Compliance Reporting Buyers may, as a matter of good practice, contact suppliers to indicate that they are required to share details of suppliers and supply agreements with the Regulator.
17. What is a supply agreement?
A supply agreement means a contract (whether orally or in writing) for the sale or supply of agri-food products by a supplier to a buyer.
To note: A supply agreement may comprise of more than a single document agreed at the beginning of a trading relationship, it can include terms and conditions of trading, emails confirming changes to supply, product specifications, promotional activity, rebate agreements etc.
Q18. How do we notify the Regulator of a change of Liaison Officer?
You can notify the Regulator of change of a Liaison Officer details by completing a new Liaison Officer nomination template which is available above. Completed forms can be returned by emailing the completed template to compliance@agrifoodregulator.ie.