EU farmers demand urgent reform of agricultural plans that ignore Ukraine war and inflation

31 Jan 2023 --- Agri-cooperatives and European farmers are warning of a very complex regulatory landscape in 2023 because a lot of European agricultural proposals such as the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the new farm-to-fork strategy were written without taking into account unprecedented inflation and the war in Ukraine.

EU authorities want to move on a range of policy proposals that will impact the bloc’s farming and food industry but are facing push back from Copa-Cogeca – an umbrella organization of stakeholders in EU agri-food – which believes leaders have not considered all the consequences of their actions.

During a press conference yesterday Copa president, Christine Lambert, called for emergency measures to continue as war rages in Ukraine. The EU, for example, postponed environmental rules on crop rotation to boost cereal production amid the war. Lambert asks for suspensions on rules to continue until the end of the war.

Lambert also demands changes in the European Green Deal, which was devised before the war, and in the bloc’s nature restoration directive. She flags the policies’ strict requirements and obligations as “too restrictive,” as the restoration directive would remove large swathes of agricultural productive land at a time when food security is flagged as paramount.

Copa’s president also notes that inflation is not considered in the new CAP budget, making monetary payments for farmers less impactful as they are not adjusted for 2023 manufacturing prices. 

Keeping up with inflation
Cogeca’s president, Ramon Armengol, highlights that even record prices for food don’t compensate for the increase in costs of production – as energy costs bite, for example. Moreover, he tells FoodIngredientsFirst that this year will be marked by uncertainty, as there are “too many variables to predict effectively if prices will continue increasing.” 

The EU postponed environmental rules on crop rotation to boost cereal production due to the war in Ukraine.On top of the on-going war, there are other issues impacting European farming and the food industry such as the relentless fight to tackle climate change in theface of extreme weather, supply chains issues as well as labor shortages. 

European Commission president, Ursula Von Der Leyen, recently highlighted that revenue for farmers increased 13% last year – a comparable increase to the 13.8% in the US, according to the US Department of Agriculture. 

But Armengol says the positive revenue number is not representative for the entire farmers industry, as there have been differences between farmers. He points out that some vegetable-based farmers might have had more profits this year. Meanwhile, livestock and dairy farmers have not seen these benefits. 

“We need high revenues to attract younger farmers. We have lost a lot of farmers in the last ten years, as they cannot make a living,” Armengol asserts. 

This is creating fears of a worsening labor gap in farming as younger farmers will be needed as older farmers retire.

Europe’s sour sugar situation
Lambert has called a new Court of Justice of the EU ruling relating to neonic insecticides, a “devastating blow for the sugar beet sector,” which threatens a drop in sugar production.

According to Lambert, a drop in sugar production might force countries to start importing sugar from outside the EU, from countries that haven’t banned the pesticide. 

The ruling of the European courts interprets the regulation on plant protection products “in a very restrictive manner,” prohibiting the use of seeds coated with banned pesticides, even during national derogations and in emergencies.

The association calls for more time as farmers work to find effective alternatives yet unavailable. 

“This incomprehensible decision (by the EU courts) marks a divorce between legal interpretation and the agronomic reality facing growers. It pushes many of them in an unprecedented situation a few weeks before the start of the sugar beet sowing season and leads to an extreme uncertainty and chaotic situation,” says Elisabeth Lacoste, director of the European Beet Growers Association.Copa-Cogeca call for authorities not to rush into raitfying the Mercosur trade agreement.

“Europeans will be dependent on imports of less sustainable and more emitting sugar from overseas,” adds Marie-Christine Ribera, director general of the European Association of Sugar Manufacturers.

Meanwhile, in the UK, the authorities have granted emergency use of thiamethoxam – a type of neonicotinoid – to use in England’s sugar beet this year.

The Pesticide Action Network of the UK says that a single teaspoon of neonicotinoid can kill 1.25 billion bees and that the UK government is acting against its own experts’ advice against using the pesticide. 

In the same vein, Amy Heley, public affairs and media officer at the Pesticide Collaboration, underscores: “In previous years, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs insisted that the sugar industry must make progress in finding alternatives, but we are yet to see any outcomes of this.” 

“The Pesticide Collaboration is deeply concerned that this emergency derogation is simply another example of the government failing to follow through on their own pledges to improve the environment and protect human health.”

Fierce opposition to Mercosur
During the conference, Copa-Cogeca also reiterated its opposition to the EU’s Mercosur trade agreement with Brazil, which the EU is looking to revamp and ratify following the election of Lula Da Silva.

The agri-cooperatives and European farmers association is calling out what they consider hypocrisy from the EU authorities. They argue that it doesn’t make sense to “rush into the Mercosur agreement and import meat” from areas prone to deforestation when the EU is, at the same time, trying to implement more restrictive deforestation rules.

Armengol was critical of the state of Brazilian agriculture and affirms that the condition of Brazilian agriculture has not changed in the last years and that it doesn’t meet the requirements for the EU to pursue a trade deal.

Lambert has called the CJEU ruling relating to neonic insecticides, a “devastating blow for the sugar beet sector.”In Brazil, the traceability in the beef sector is not ensured since the animal birth and only mandatory in the last 90 days before slaughtering or live shipment. 

Furthermore, Armengol explains that Brazilian farmers use herbicides and insecticides that are banned in Europe.

A Copa spokesperson previously told FoodIngredientsFirst that the negative effect of Mercosur being ratified would reach the beef, meat, poultry, ethanol, rich, orange juice and honey sectors.

US WTO disparage?
Copa-Cogeca is also criticizing the lack of response to a ruling by the WTO that forced the US to remove excessive tariffs on the import of Spanish black olives. 

“The European Commission should take a firm stance against the US,” highlights Armengol.

Furthermore, the Permanent Mission of the EU to the WTO said yesterday that it is “now considering the next steps to make sure that its rights under the WTO rules are respected,” as the authorities believe the US is not complying with its obligations.

From August 2018 to the end of 2021, the 35% duties on Spanish olives lead to over €150 million (US$163 million) in losses to Spanish olive makers, according to the Spanish Association of Exporters and Table Olive Makers. 

By Marc Cervera