The body representing dairy farmer organisations in the EU has called on the expected new European Commissioner for Agriculture to address flaws in the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen (who will serve a second term in that role) announced her picks for her fellow members of the commission this week.
While these proposed commissioners have to be ratified by the European Parliament, it is rare for the parliament to reject the commission president’s proposed picks.
That means that the incoming European Commissioner for Agriculture is most likely to be Luxembourg’s Christophe Hansen, who von der Leyen has appointed to the role.
Commenting on the appointment of Hansen, the European Milk Board (EMB) – of which the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) is a member – called on him to take into account aspects that the group said is missing from the Strategic Dialogue.
These missing aspects are important for a “successful sectoral transformation” according to the EMB.
The EMB called for transparency in the food chain – one of the recommendations of the final report of the Strategic Dialogue – to be extended along the entire food chain, saying producers have already put this into practice, and that other links in the chain need to “urgently catch up”.
The Strategic Dialogue document also talks about the need to improve cooperation among producers. In this context, the EMB called for revisiting the conditions for “producer pooling”, such as producer organisations, negotiating with processors on behalf of a group of producers.
“Milk producers must be allowed to come together in numbers that put them on an equal footing with processors in terms of market strength. A potential pooling level of 30% of EU milk volume would be necessary across the EU, and there should be no limits on pooling nationally,” the EMB said.
However, the EMB claimed that it would be “a mistake” to promote the co-operative system as a solution to this “in and of itself” due to the “growing distance” between co-operatives and their producers.
“While it is definitely in the co-operative’s own interest to present itself as a structure that brings added value in order to justify its existence, farmers’ experience over many years has shown that membership of a co-operative does not mean a general improvement in producer standing in the value chain,” the group said.
On unfair trading practices (UTPs), the EMB said that the current EU Directive on UTPs in the Food Supply Chain is not enough, and that specific measures are needed for unfair prices, so that prices that do not cover production costs are stopped.
The board welcomed the fact that recommendations of the Strategic Dialogue called for data on product costs and prices to be taken into consideration while negotiating contracts, and for additional costs from environmental, animal welfare and other standards be included.
The EMB said it wants to see all costs incurred by producers to be covered, and for sustainability requirements not to supersede “everyday concerns”.