The European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture will debate, on Monday 28 February, in the presence of the European Commission, the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on EU agricultural markets.
In a statement issued on 24 February, the German Agriculture Minister, Cem Özdemir, said (https://aeur.eu/f/ie ) that he was assessing the potential impact of the war in Ukraine on the wheat market and fertiliser prices. He recalled that Russia’s share of world wheat exports is 17% and Ukraine’s is 12%. “There should be no direct impact on supply in Germany”, said Özdemir, who was concerned that higher energy and fertiliser prices could lead to “a further increase in food prices”.
Retaliatory measures? The sanctions announced by the Europeans in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict are a “matter of great concern” for French agriculture, said the president of the FNSEA, Christiane Lambert, on 22 February, who fears retaliatory measures from Russia. When the EU imposed sanctions on Russia in 2014 in response to the annexation of Crimea, agriculture was the first sector targeted by a Russian embargo on milk, cheese and all dairy products in particular. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)