The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
France aims for trade link to standards
Under pressure from its farm unions, France is set to use its sixmonth EU presidency to drive the issue of standards for imported food.
France wants to secure a commitment to trade being linked to EU standards in countries exporting to the EU.
It is linking this to deforestation, knowing this is an issue where it is pushing on an open door to gather support for the principle of parallel standards.
This has always been a difficult area, since under World Trade Organisation rules countries cannot demand standards other than on grounds of disease risk.
Other issues to be pursued include a review of how well the Farm to Fork green strategy is working, two years after it was introduced.
France is also pressing for new ways to make pesticides more sustainable, underlining that while politics change in Europe, France can still be relied upon to drive farmers’ interests.
Meanwhile, there is a lot of talk about more sustainable food products, which peaks in the UK with the explosion of adverts for vegan food to mark the ‘Veganuary’ campaign.
However the European Commission has launched a survey to establish whether this is a real trend or one talked about by a vocal section of society.
Its survey seeks to establish to what extent businesses are moving towards more sustainable food production and marketing.
The reintroduction of smaller scale lockdowns in many countries, because of the Omicron Covid variant, trigged a small drop in global food prices in December.
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) its index was down 0.9% compared to November. But at the end of 2021 the index was still 23% ahead of the previous year.
Food prices rose by 28% last year, pushing the index to levels not seen since 2012.
Over the year cereal prices rose by 27%, meat prices by 17% up and dairy prices rose by a similar amount.
On a negative note for consumers, but a positive one for farmers, the FAO says there is “little room for any optimism” prices this year will fall back to more normal levels.