November 29, 2010

European farmers call for poultry, pork sector support

The European agricultural professional organisations (Copa-Cogeca) have called on the European Commission (EC) to take measures in support of the pork and poultry industries.

In a letter to the EC Vice-President with responsibility for competition policy, Joaquin Almunia, Copa-Cogeca, stated that recent increases in production costs for pork, poultry and eggs, stemming from the roughly 30% rise in feed prices, "are not reflected in the prices paid by consumers".

Consumer prices are dropping today, "revealing the weak position farmers hold in the food supply chain," argue the agricultural organisations. They ask the EC "to take preventive action and to punish dominant operators in the food supply chain, which abuse their market power at a time when meat prices are dropping and production costs rising."

The pork and poultry sectors are confronted with a "market that is increasingly out of touch with its fundamentals and steered by speculation and a few powerful food supply chain operators," regrets Copa-Cogeca.

With the recent increase in cereal prices, the agricultural professional organisations and cooperatives urge the EC to "activate its market management tools to keep pork prices from ending up in a critical situation". Producers "are suffering from low profitability stemming from the decline in meat prices paid by retailers," adds Copa-Cogeca. "We believe that the discussions by the high-level group on milk concerning farmers' bargaining power in the food supply chain should be expanded to the entire stock farming sector," reads its letter. The association asks the EC "to take forward its analysis of the possibility of extending the role of producers' organisations in the post-2013 CAP".

In their letter to the agriculture commissioner, the organisations warn that "an agreement with Mercosur would put considerable downward pressure on the prices of all types of meat". They add that "it would increase competition between white and red meat to the detriment of the pork sector and would encourage European consumers to buy imported meat produced under standards considered unacceptable in the EU" (use of growth enhancers, limited controls on the use of antibiotics).