The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Commission cap on post-2020 direct payments poses global challenge
Eurofile: Juncker confirms limit will be 60,000 euros and looks to support small farm holdings
European Commission president Jean Claude Juncker has confirmed there will be a limit on direct payments in the post2020 Common Agricultural Policy.
He said this would be 60,000 euros, or around £52,500, and the CAP should support small farm holdings and not “agricultural factories”.
While future UK support policies are up in the air, Defra Secretary Michael Gove has suggested a cap on payments and policies to ensure payments go to farmers rather than landlords.
The challenge for the Commission will be to maintain a globally competitive farming industry while effectively putting its bigger farms at a financial disadvantage. UTPs and turf wars Farmers have waited a long time to see legislation across the EU to limit so-called unfair trade practices (UTPs) along the food chain.
This is now going through the lengthy process of approval by member states, the Commission and European Parliament. That outcome cannot be taken for granted, and before it even begins it has triggered a turf war in the European Parliament.
Since the legislation is from Farm Commissioner Phil Hogan it was assumed the investigation into it would be the job of the Parliament’s agriculture committee. However, the committee responsible for the internal market says it should be its role.
Meanwhile some MEPs want EU competition authorities to investigate the planned merger of Asda and Sainsbury, despite only UK businesses being involved. WTO antibiotic resistance The European Commission is risking action against it by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over suggestions it could ban meat and other food imports from countries using antimicrobials that are banned or restricted in the EU.
This would be part of a wider European strategy to tackle the threat to people from antibiotic resistance.
It has been suggested that this would be a non-scientific trade barrier. That would be illegal under WTO rules.
The risk from less well-controlled use of these products in third countries is something the UK farming lobby could use to counter government plans to ease tariffs to secure post-Brexit trade deals. Lift for dairy farmers The latest Food and Agriculture Organisation figures point to stable prices, with encouraging news for dairy farmers, as in April dairy prices were one of the few commodities where prices rose.
They were up by 3.4% year-on-year on the back of what the report describes as “robust” demand for dairy products and concerns about the volumes New Zealand will have available for export. This should help head off pressure for lower milk prices, as a result of a surge in production in Europe.
The report also predicts that while demand is increasing, cereal production will fall slightly in 2018, because of weather problems in key countries.