At the workshop, hosted by the MEPs Giovanni La Via (EPP, IT, chair of the Environmental Committee), Daniel Buda (EPP, RU) and Norica Nicolai (ALDE, RU), presentations were given on the outlooks for EU raw materials supply and demand in the light of challenges like climate change and farmer’s income. Tassos Haniotis, DG AGRI Director of Economic Analysis, Perspectives and Evaluations & Communication, provided an overview of agricultural commodity price trends, with specific attention for cereals trade flows. He identified price-related risks, production risks and income-related risks as the key challenges to reverse the margin squeeze European cereal farmers find themselves in. Max Schulman, Chairman of the cereals working party of COPA-COGECA, stressed the need for a level playing field for European farmers compared to farmers on other continents, with equal access to innovative agricultural tools that would allow for investment into the future.
Tony Bell, member of the FEFAC Praesidium, called for a comprehensive approach to the EU strategic raw material supply, with a focus on the creation of an EU protein balance sheet as a monitoring tool to assess the consequences of EU agricultural policy on the long term. Oliver Balkhausen, COCERAL Chairman of the Market & Agricultural Policy, highlighted the current policy approach towards GMOs, new breeding techniques, pesticides and sustainability criteria for biofuels in relation to third countries as items that could compromise the EU’s access to the global market of raw materials needed for food and feed production, which would ultimately impact the competitiveness of EU farmers.