Groups lobby for focus on promotion of beef

Beef interests from across the EU used a meeting with members of the European parliament to press the case for their industry.

Their message was that it was often forgotten and farm groups lobbied for Brussels to do more to promote the product to consumers. They also claimed there was insufficient focus on the threat to beef from planned free trade agreements, particularly to liberalise imports from South America.

They called for a more definite commitment from the commission and MEPs for beef to be treated as a ‘sensitive’ product in negotiations, so that consumers and farmers were both protected from a surge of cheap imports produced under systems that would not match European standards.

Meanwhile the farm commissioner, Phil Hogan, has accused politicians of spreading ‘misinformation’ about the risks from trade deals, while ignoring the opportunities they would bring.

Despite it being a bad year for many commodities, the European Commission has again rolled forward unused its crisis reserve of 435 million euro.

Funds for this are deducted from direct payments but, for a number of years, the funds have gone unused. This offers the commission some certainty about cash for emergency situations, but the latest roll-over has to raise questions about whether it is needed.

The commission argues that the 500 million euro emergency dairy aid package came from superlevy fines, and that these would not be available for a fresh dairy crisis. The fund’s return to farmers is largely a paper exercise each year.

Countries across the EU have continued to report cases of bird flu, and many have increased precautions. This information is channelled through Brussels as part of the system to alert other member states. Reports of the disease in wild birds have come in from France, Hungary, Germany and the Netherlands.

Under EU rules infected flocks must be destroyed. The European Food Safety Authority is assessing the risk from world bird migratory routes and will publish the findings in the new year.

The problem with EU statistics is that by the time they are collated the world and the data needed has moved on. This is the case with figures just out showing that agricultural output in the EU fell by almost 2% in 2015, led by a big drop in the income from livestock farming.

The main cause was lower returns for dairy (-14%) and pig farming (-6.5%). Other sectors reported flat incomes, although better vegetable prices disguised a 5% plus drop in cereal incomes. The figures for 2015 were followed for many commodities by an even worse year in 2016.

Countries across the EU have continued to report cases of bird flu

Beef is under threat from planned free trade agreements.