FoodDrinkEurope highlights investment and innovation as crucial ahead of 2024 EU elections

29 Jun 2023 --- FoodDrinkEurope has launched a campaign identifying five key areas for policymakers to address ahead of the 2024 European Parliament elections, which will be held on June 6 to 9, 2024.

The five core areas were unveiled yesterday during FoodDrinkEurope’s #FoodFuture Ideas Fest, which brought more than 800 stakeholders together throughout the day to discuss the future of food. An urgent need for policymakers to recognize the agri-food sector as essential was also highlighted. 

The five areas are: 

• Stimulate Investment: A significant financing gap exists to meet the EU’s sustainability ambitions. For example, an estimated €8 billion (US$8.7 billion) a year is needed to help farmers transition to more sustainable agriculture; additional investment is needed into renewable energy infrastructure; at least €6.7 billion (US$8.4 billion) is needed to meet Europe’s plastic recycling targets; and agri-food businesses face a finance gap of at least €12.5 billion (US$13.6 billion) in unmet loan demands.
• Support Innovation: A science-based and predictable policy environment is needed to unlock business investment into sustainable products and novel foods; to give faster access to technology such as chemical recycling, new genomic techniques and digital tools; and to avoid a brain- and finance-drain out of Europe.      
• Boost Trade and Secure Supply: An EU trade agenda, market access strategy and EU promotion policy are needed to boost global competitiveness and sustainable growth. In addition, policymakers should work with stakeholders to map global supply chain vulnerabilities and develop measures to maintain food and drink supplies in times of crisis.
• Build Better Regulation: For sustainable businesses to thrive, all EU policies should be built on firm principles. For example, policy should protect and enhance the Single Market; new laws should be science-based and subject to impact assessments to avoid unintended consequences; and policy discussions must consider the specific needs of SMEs, which comprise 99% of the food and drink manufacturing sector.     
• Improve Governance and Coordination: To recognize the strategic importance of Europe’s food sector and to avoid contradictory EU policy proposals, better governance and coordination is required from the EU institutions. For example, the creation of a DG Food within the European Commission could help avoid trade-offs on food safety, environmental goals, food security and economic sustainability.

The document further articulates FoodDrinkEurope’s call for an EU Food Investment and Resilience Plan, raised earlier this year to support the agri-food sector in delivering on the Green Deal targets while maintaining industry competitiveness.  

Dirk Jacobs, FoodDrinkEurope director general, says there is “a huge investment gap” in the agri-food.“The European food and drink industry remains very supportive of the European Green Deal and Farm to Fork, but if we want to scale up the transition in the agri-food sector, it needs to be backed up with enabling conditions to make it a success,” says Marco Settembri, FoodDrinkEurope president. 

“As those are largely absent in the current policy setting, we see a huge opportunity for a reflection process ahead of the EU elections about how to strengthen the pathway forward with a Farm to Fork 2.0.”

Dirk Jacobs, FoodDrinkEurope director general, adds: “There is a huge investment gap in the agri-food sector, particularly in relation to the transition to sustainable agriculture.”

“Public and private financing need to come together and be applied strategically to agri-food. This is not only about money but also about policies that incentivize and help farmers and producers rather than stifle progress. A strong EU agri-food sector is important for Europe’s economy and global competitiveness and critical for delivering on global climate ambitions of the EU.”

Sustainable food systems in sight
Over the coming months, FoodDrinkEurope will engage in conversations with food chain partners, policymakers and other food systems actors to hear their views and elaborate on each of the five policymakers asks.  

FoodDrinkEurope also published its updated Action Plan for Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems. 

Launched a year ago, the Action Plan is FoodDrinkEurope’s proactive work program to help the food and drink sector move toward sustainable food production through concrete actions, toolkits and thought leadership. 

It forms part of FoodDrinkEurope’s commitment to the EU Code of Conduct for Responsible Food Business and Marketing Practices, which celebrates its second anniversary on July 5.

Earlier this year, as EU leaders met to discuss the ongoing challenges of climate change, the invasion of Ukraine, the cost-of-living crisis and various other disruptions faced by the industry, FoodDrinkEurope wrote to EU president Von der Leyen to urge the establishment of an EU Food Investment and Resilience Plan. Driving this call to action was FoodDrinkEurope’s concern that “the agri-food sector has been largely ignored in the EU’s latest plans,” noting that current initiatives to combat ongoing crises, such as the Green Deal Industrial Plan, omit the F&B sector.

Edited by Elizabeth Green