IN WAKE OF CRISIS SITUATION IN EU FARM SECTOR, EU FARM LEADERS URGE SPANISH PRESIDENCY TO DEMAND ACTION

In a high-level meeting with the Spanish Presidency today, EU Farm Leaders called for action to be taken immediately to improve the catastrophic situation in the EU farm sector, warning farm incomes are at levels seen in the 1990s.

Huge drop in income across all sectors

Speaking to Spanish Farm Minister Elena Espinosa, Copa President Padraig Walshe stressed

“The economic crisis has seriously hit EU farmers, with a huge income drop of 12% seen last year. Some sectors were particularly affected, with drops of as much as 30% seen in the EU cereals sector, 24% in the EU olive oil sector, 21% in the EU dairy sector and 12% in the EU fruit sector. Urgent action must be taken to prevent a complete collapse of the EU farm sector. Copa-Cogeca has already called for measures to be introduced immediately in the EU fruit and vegetables sector, with increased withdrawal possibilities for fruit. There must also be reasonable management of dairy stocks and full use of market management tools in the cereals sector”.

Call to strengthen farmers position in market

“In the long term, adjustments to the CAP post-2013 must focus on strengthening the economic production role of farmers, and we need an enhanced budget to achieve this. We need a vibrant Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), with measures to enable farmers to withstand crises. In addition to maintenance of strong common market measures, we believe that market risk management tools and export promotion tools should be examined more”.

Cogeca President Paolo Bruni insisted “Farmers market position in the food chain must be strengthened significantly. In the case of bread, for example, the retail price can currently be as much as 30 times the farm gate price, with farmers receiving in general around 8% of the final retail price. Copa-Cogeca consequently supports the draft EU Council Conclusions to improve the functioning of the food supply chain. We want to ensure that producer groups of which cooperatives are the predominant legal form have a strong, economically viable position in the food chain. We consequently fully agree with the statement in the paper that cooperatives and possibly other producer.