EUROPE REGIONAL REPORT Date : 2017-04-18 Views : 3098
institution name : NAC
Regional Report - Europe
Mr. Eugen Tømte, NCC (Norway)
Activity
There has been no specific ICAO activity in the latest months. However, the European organizations were gathered in a Congress in Greece in October. The main topic was how to address the price situation for agricultural products. In August the Nordic farmer’s organizations and cooperatives had their annual meeting in Sweden. A number of representatives from cooperatives in Europe also participated in the Coop Summit in Quebec in October.
Challenging markets and prices in Europe
In the last couple of years, low product prices have been a major challenge for European farmers. This has especially been the fact in the dairy sector. There is a complexity of explanations for this, but the Russian import ban and the lifting of the milk quota system have obviously had an impact on production and market. Now the prices are slightly rising, but still the volatility in prices is a huge problem for many products and for the farmers producing them.
Also, the future seems to bring a lot of uncertainty. One of the very hot topics is “Brexit”, the UK decision to leave the European Union. Today, no one can predict the result of the separation process, nor the future of cooperation. The outcome of this will probably have a substantial impact on the agricultural sector and market for agricultural products.
Discussion on new CAP
The discussion on a new common agricultural policy to be active from 2020 has started. How to reduce the farmers’ risks and attract new farmers are the main challenges. Volatile prices and the climate risk are issues that have to be addressed.
There is an increasing understanding of the importance of cooperation amongst farmers as a tool to reduce price volatility and secure the farmers a fair share of the value added in the food chain. The farmer’s organizations therefore will ask for more tools to support cooperatives. One important issue is to make sure that agricultural policy and objectives are not overruled by competition regulations.