The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Brazilian meat industry standards scrutinised
EC: Deal would increase country’s access to European market
As the European Commission continues to negotiate a deal that would increase Brazil’s access to the European market for beef, the European parliament again has standards in the Brazilian meat industry in its sights.
It has agreed to send a delegation to inspect meat production facilities and the visit is expected in early April. The delegation will include two arch critics of Brazilian standards – Northern Ireland MEP Jim Nicholson and Irish MEP Mairead McGuinness.
Both have been vocal against Brazilian beef in the past, and both come from farming backgrounds. This will embarrass the commission as it continues its drive to secure a trade deal with the Mercosur countries of South America.
Brussels has offered special tariff arrangements for 100,000 tonnes of beef a year, despite criticism from farm lobby groups and two major agricultural countries, France and Ireland.
The commission says 2017 will be a high point for farm incomes, and in the EU league table Dutch farmers were by far the best off.
Incomes in the Netherlands were four times the average for other member states at 57,000 euro per farmer. This was up on the previous year, despite Dutch farmers also faring best in 2016.
This reflects the dominance of intensively managed farms, but it is nonetheless an impressive outcome. It put the Netherlands well ahead of others in the top five – Denmark, the UK, Belgium and France.
The figure for the UK was 35,000 euro, despite the boost from the fall in the value of sterling.
The figure is calculated by taking all income and dividing it by the hours worked to calculate a full-time equivalent. The ‘old’ EU member states continued to have higher incomes, with Romania and Croatia bottom of the league table.
The commission has warned farmers’ CAP payments are likely to fall after 2020. This is because of the pressure on the EU budget driven by the loss of UK contributions. The budget commissioner says direct payments could fall by 5% to 10%. This is likely to be achieved through degressivity – capping payments for large landowners – rather than across the board cuts.
This will narrow the gap between EU policy and the post-Brexit approach in the UK.
Meanwhile dairy farmers will hope prices might stabilise after another increase in the Fonterra Global Dairy Trade auction price. This rose by 6%, reversing some of the losses of late 2017. This is the third consecutive market increase, and may head off pressure for lower prices. The Westminster Government will soon have to decide a post-Brexit policy on GM crops. Global figures for 2016, show the onward march of the technology in most major agricultural regions outside Europe.
The area of GM crops rose by five million hectares or 3% to 185 million. GM crops are now grown in 26 countries – 19 of which are classed as developing. Significant rises were recorded in Brazil, the US and Canada. In the EU only Slovakia and Spain increased their area of GM crops. This confirms the challenge the EU faces to secure supplies of GM-free soya.