The European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski has indicated that he is hesitant to use market measures to solve difficulties in the European pigmeat sector.
The commissioner made the comments during a meeting with European Parliament coordinators from the EU Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (COMAGRI) this week about the difficulties being experienced by pig farmers.
He told the meeting: “The most interesting development during the SCA [Special Committee on Agriculture] on Monday was that despite 13 member states have asked for market measures – mainly to trigger Article 219… seven member states, including the major producing countries, such as Germany, Spain, Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland did not support a call for market measures.”
The seven member states which did not request market measures make up almost two thirds of EU pig production.
“I think this is a clear signal and a signal I cannot ignore,” the commissioner said.
State aid for pigmeat sector
The commissioner told the meeting that the French agriculture minister announced a huge emergency package for the French pig producers of €270 million, which will be financed through state aid.
He said the magnitude of the French package, if scaled up at EU level, would amount to €2.7 billion, six times higher than the crisis reserve.
In addition, Poland has announced a state aid package of €88 million.
Wojciechowski said:
“That is to show that state aid can make a difference and that it can be an effective tool. I have consistently and strongly invited the member states to use this tool to help the sector.”
Addressing the chair of COMAGRI, the commissioner continued: “You mention in your letter that you would like to see market intervention. Measures under Article 220 – exceptional market support measures to cover losses linked to movement restrictions – and Article 222 – severe imbalances in markets – were always available, but have been ignored by member states and producers.”
“I mentioned earlier that 13 member states have asked for Article 219 – measure against market disturbances. You all know that an urgent and quick measure in 2022 would realistically have to be financed through the mobilisation of [part of] the agricultural crisis reserve (€497.3 million).”
He said that should a move need the approval of the European Parliament and the council and that consequently, this amount could not be reimbursed to farmers in 2023.
“In the end, it will be the farmers who finance the measure,” he explained adding that invoking that measure has constraints, as there are conditions attached to it.
Who would benefit?
The commissioner also raised questions about who would benefit from the emergency measures / funding – the member states with most pigs or the member states with the most pig producers.
“€497.3 million for 1.5 million pig producers in the EU is not a lot, compared to what France and Poland are offering,” the commissioner added.
He told the meeting that the reality is that 2% of pig producers account for 75% of the pigs.
“This problem can be addressed by quality measures, shorter supply chains and the opportunities provided by the new CAP [Common Agricultural Policy] for sectoral programmes to include pigmeat producers,” Wojciechowski said.
“So far, I have only seen that one member state introduce some measures for pigmeat producers in their CAP Strategic Plan. I will be considering why this is the case and what can be done about it.”
Promotion of pigmeat
The call for proposals under the European’s Commission’s promotion policy was launched on January 20, 2022 with a total budget for co-financing of €185.9 million.
“I urge you to encourage producers to apply for the promotion scheme,” the commissioner added.
He will be leading a delegation to Singapore and Vietname in the short-term to try and source new markets for EU produce and will invite pig producers to be part of the delegation to network and find opportunities.
“I would also like to stress that so far the sector itself has not come forward with any request for any market measures,” he continued.
“That is to show that the sector has confidence in itself, but we do of course continue to listen to them closely.”
The commissioner added that he is also active on the issue of high input and energy prices, which is closely related to pigmeat sector issue.
“We all need to be very sensitive to the political and economic consequences, if both farmers’ incomes and consumer food prices move in the wrong direction due to the developments in input prices. This risk needs to be addressed in the policy response at EU level,” the commissioner concluded.