At the Agriculture Council on Monday 11 October in Luxembourg, Ministers from several countries (Belgium, supported by Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Romania and Slovakia) expressed their concerns about the situation in the pig meat sector.
The sector is struggling due to high feed prices, reduced demand and the impact of African swine fever on European pig meat prices outside the EU. The delegations asked the European Commission to activate exceptional market measures.
Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski said that intervention in the pig market had to be carefully assessed, “to avoid unintended adverse effects. Market measures do not only require substantial financial resources from the EU budget, they can also be counterproductive and send wrong signals to the market”.
He noted that pig production “continues to increase in some Member States. Under such conditions, taking support measures would delay the necessary market adjustment and prolong the crisis”. The best solution, according to the Commissioner, would be to take targeted national measures in the pig sector. The tools are available under both the rural development and the State aid frameworks. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)