EU export farmers due for a shake-up under Green Deal

With the successful implementation of the EU’s Green Deal, Europe will be the first climate-neutral continent by 2050.

However, with bold plans to cut carbon emissions by over 55% by 2030, the produce industry supplying Europe will have to understand and work within these policies and regulations in order to remain both compliant and profitable.

This emerged during a webinar hosted by the Produce Marketing Association. David Farrell, CEO of Blue North Sustainability in Stellenbosch, said that while the headline commitment of the Green Deal was to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, it went well beyond just climate policy.

“The Green Deal is intended to address environmental sustainability issues more broadly, including the protection of natural resources.

“Policies being rolled out include the Farm-to-Fork strategy, which commits the EU to co-operating with all its partners to develop ‘green alliances’ on sustainable food systems. This will align its trade policies and international relations [with] the goals set out in the Green Deal.”

The objectives of the Farm-to

Fork strategy included encouraging sustainable food consumption, promoting affordable and healthy food for all, and improving farmers’ position in the value chain.

Farrell explained that this entailed legislative proposals to avoid placing products related to deforestation or forest degradation on the EU market.

“The EU will apply zero tolerance for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, and imported food that does not comply with the relevant EU environmental standards will not be allowed in EU markets.

The EU will require increasingly sustainable practices by its trading partners, which means far-reaching consequences for farmers sending produce to the [region],” Farrell said.

Frédéric Rosseneu, corporate business development manager at fresh produce company Greenyard, added that value chains would also be affected, as the EU Biodiversity strategy would scrutinise how the industry was using agricultural inputs within farming operations. This would place the use of fertilisers and pesticides under scrutiny.

“Furthermore, the Circular Economy Action Plan will restrict the use of single-use plastics, it will review the packaging and packaging waste directive, and will impose binding targets for food waste, with the goal of halving it by 2030.

“Finally, there will be a mandatory system of due diligence for supply chains, which will guarantee human rights throughout the supply chain and will consider environmental risks potentially affecting human rights.” Rosseneu added that it was important to keep in mind that a lot of these strategies and much of the work was still in progress and would take time to implement.

PIXABAY The hope is that by encouraging sustainable food consumption in the EU as part of the continent‘s Green Deal, farmers‘ position in the value chain will improve.