News Ukraine
EU prepares agriculture and food crisis package
Next week, the European Commission will present a special support package for agriculture and food production, intended to guarantee food security and support sectors affected by the war in Ukraine.
This is what Michael Scannell, director-general for agriculture and rural policy, said at a meeting of the dairy sector in Brussels. Scannell did not want to reveal many details yet, but he indicated that the dairy and dairy sector are not the first to be eligible for support. Prices on the dairy market have risen sharply there.
Support pig sector and tinker with fallow
There will be additional support measures for the pig sector. A support package for arable farming is also being considered, in which growers are encouraged to start growing on fallow land for both food and animal feed production. This is a direct response to the disruption of the supply of protein and oil products from Ukraine and Russia. The impetus for this was given last Wednesday at a special EU crisis summit. Subsequently, the so-called Declaration of Versailles handed in. In it, the EU states that it wants to build up strategic stocks of important raw materials and also wants to ensure greater independence for the supply of food and feed from outside the EU.
Feed industry continues to see problems
That won't solve everything for this year, this is how the European umbrella organization of the animal feed industry Fefac . reacted pretty soon. The supply of certain animal feed raw materials that the EU itself does not currently have is still necessary. Protein-rich grains and oil products have to be brought in from elsewhere. Including from North and South America. Certain MRLs (maximum residue limit for plant protection products, ed.) may have to be adjusted for this, according to a spokesperson for the FEFAC. However, for certain raw materials, such as non-GMO grains and sunflower products, there is no or almost no alternative. It is therefore impossible to say at all what that means for Vlog streams. They may no longer be maintained.
What the war means for the Farm-to-Fork strategy in the longer term remains to be seen. Everyone at the meeting agreed that a completely different geopolitical situation has now emerged.
Klaas van der Horst
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