The potential consequences of the ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy continue to worry the agricultural sector. The European Commission is said to have carried out a study which forecasts a 10% drop in EU production.
On Thursday 27 May, the Agriculture Ministers of Central and Eastern European countries - the Visegrád Group (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia), together with Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania - presented a joint declaration in which they called for caution in the implementation of this strategy. They emphasised the fact that targets for reducing the use of fertilisers, pesticides and antibiotics should be set at a European level in order to take account of the different starting points in different countries. The Commission is invited to publish an in-depth study of the impact of the strategy on food security, competitiveness, and prices of agricultural products.
According to the think tank Farm Europe, the Commission’s Studies and Research department has carried out an initial study on the impact of the strategy on the agricultural sector, but this has been “blocked for more than six months by Vice-President Timmermans”, so that it will not be made public before the end of the CAP negotiations.
According to Farm Europe, this study concludes that “overall European agricultural production would fall by 10%”. The ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy aims at a 50% reduction in the use of chemical pesticides by 2030, and a 20% reduction in fertilisers (as well as a target of 25% of land under organic farming).
Farm Europe estimates that with 4% of the ecological focus area being non-productive, the impact on production would be: -7% for wheat, -5% for maize, -5% for beet, -20% for oilseeds, -4% for red meat, -2% for milk, -1% for chicken, and no impact on pork. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)