The beef and sheep sectors in the EU are “under extreme pressure” due to the market access being given to other countries, according to an EU farm organisation.
The fragility of the beef and sheep sectors and their importance for the vibrancy of EU’s rural areas should not be overlooked in EU trade discussions, Copa-Cogeca said in a statement.
“The EU beef and sheep meat sectors cannot accept more concessions given to third country partners in the context of trade negotiations.
“The cumulative impacts of trade deals are very much being felt and met with a lot of bitterness by our farmers, especially at a time where they are constantly being asked to do and invest more to improve their production,” it said.
EU
The organisation said that initiatives under the Green Deal may require “a lot of investment at farm level” across member states, while at the same time the EU is allowing increased market access from third countries, “regardless of production methods”.
“This leaves us in a dire situation where we witness a loss of competitiveness, decline in production and sustainability leakage being ignored,” Copa-Cogeca said.
“It is only logical that we oppose any additional market access that further damages the income of our farmers, endangers our production, and discourages the necessary investments in the improvement of local European production.”
The farming organisation said that access to any market quota should comply with the EU standard for banning the use of antibiotics as growth promotors.
The organisation also highlighted that no standards from the EU on-farm animal welfare legislation are imposed to imported live animals or animal products.
Beef and sheep
For the beef sector, Copa-Cogeca said that tariff rate quotas (TRQs) should be accessible only to cuts of meat from steers or heifers exclusively reared on pastures.
Access to the quota should be conditioned to compliance with the European standard for the identification and individual monitoring of bovine animals, it added.
For sheepmeat, Copa-Cogeca said that TRQs should be spread across the year rather than allowing exporters to “flood the market” during peak price periods at Easter and Christmas.
The farm organisation also said that the impact of UK bilateral trade deals cannot be ignored.
“We are exposed to a doubling of volumes of sheep and beef meat entering the UK market following Brexit as the UK agreed to its own trade deals with Australia and New Zealand.
“This will limit access for EU meat to UK markets but also potentially cause a displacement of UK products into the EU market and overall market instability.”
Copa-Cogeca warned that the entire EU agriculture sector is facing a “demographic challenge”.
“The only way to meet the challenge of generation renewal is through income stability, which is a positive sign for attracting younger generations to the farming profession,” it said.