Copa Cogeca: Farmers 'forced into impossible choices' over costs
Copa Cogeca has called on the EU to take more urgent action on tackling rising costs as the agriculture sector is "under historic pressure".
The umbrella organisation, representing European farmers and agri-cooperatives, said "the situation unfolding in agriculture is unprecedented".
"Feedback from the field is alarming. Across Europe, farmers and cooperatives are being forced into impossible choices as costs for fuel, fertilisers, packaging, feed, and logistics continue to surge.
"Many are now reducing acreage, changing crops, or abandoning sowing altogether, simply because production itself is becoming economically unviable.
"This is a situation now affecting all production sectors in a tense market context," the group said.
Copa Cogeca
Copa Cogeca added that disruption to production capacity will have "long-term consequences and will ultimately affect European consumers, if no swift and decisive action is taken at EU level".
"The shared feeling among all farming leaders is that the [European] Commission is extremely slow to grasp what is happening and, so far, has not put forward any concrete measures. The Commission talks, but action is still lagging," it said.
Copa Cogeca said that the draft Temporary Crisis Energy Framework and the 'AccelerateEU' plan "need to be urgently translated into concrete measures to support sectors most in difficulty and boost energy supply".
"With two major conflicts affecting Europe’s neighbourhood, the EU urgently needs a strong, coordinated response on the scale of that deployed during Covid-19 and in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine," the group said.
CAP
Copa Cogeca has warned that in the current geopolitical context, "weakening the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) would not only weaken agriculture but also undermine Europe’s strategic autonomy".
"This would be a serious and historic mistake at a time when peace, stability, and food affordability/security can no longer be taken for granted.
"The European farming community is united behind a single message to co-legislators: the CAP must remain a truly common policy, with a dedicated, ring-fenced and protected budget.
"It must be maintained at least at current levels and indexed for inflation over the 2021–2027 period," the group said.
Copa Cogeca added that it will "strongly mobilise on these two key issues" in the coming weeks.
"European policymakers cannot remain passive when the EU has the tools to act and provide much-needed relief to its food production sector," it said.
