CAP proposal for farmer Risk Management policies – Commission ‘subbing out’ its responsibilities says Wicklow ICMSA
THE proposal, raised as part of the current consultation on modernising and simplifying the Common Agricultural Policy, that financial risk management tools could be implemented from 2020 onwards has brought a sharp response from the Wicklow ICMSA Chairperson, Shane O’Loughlin.
“This idea must not turn into some kind of financial free-for-all whereby taxpayers’ money is distributed to large multinational insurers through the purchase of insurance policies and ‘ hedging’ against drastic falls in price. I have to say that the suggestion will appear as an abdication of responsibility on the part of the Commission; farmers will rightly ask themselves why they need to be insured against catastrophic falls in price if the Commission was doing its job of monitoring supply and adjusting volumes going onto the market in a competent fashion. It certainly looks like the Commission is ‘subbing out’ its own responsibilities as well as adding another layer of regulation to the supply chain on the farmers’ side while continuing with their policy of weak regulation on the food retail corporations. European Agriculture Policy of last two decades has seen the steady erosion of farm profits due to increased volatility in commodities, such as milk, and it will be seen as hugely questionable if the European Commission’s response to that failure is to force famers’ Pillar One funding from the CAP budget into financial risk management tools whereby large multinational insurance companies could make huge profits from the sector. It must be possible to deal with volatility and reform supply-demand ratios without just handing the whole question over to yet another group of massively powerful corporations – this time of the financial variety instead of retail”, stated the outspoken Aughrim farmer.