On Friday 14 July, following the green light from EU countries, the European Commission adopted the €330 million package of exceptional support measures presented on 23 June, financed by the remaining funds in the reserve for agricultural crises.
EU farmers from Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland and Sweden will benefit from this financial aid (see EUROPE 13219/10). Farmers in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia have received €100 million in support to deal with market imbalances.
This package of support measures (https://aeur.eu/f/835 ) comes at a time when farmers are still facing difficulties, as shown by the Commission’s report on the short-term outlook for EU agricultural markets.
EU farmers are still facing input costs above the long-term average, and some agricultural commodity prices are continuing to fall. In addition, they had to contend with varied and difficult weather conditions in the spring, which led to a drop in yield projections and in the quality of several basic agricultural products. At the same time, early signs of improvement were observed. For example, fertilisers have become more affordable following the fall in natural gas prices. In addition, although it remains higher than the general inflation rate, food inflation in the EU is beginning to stabilise.
The report shows that EU grain and oilseed production could increase by 5 and 8% respectively in 2023/24. EU grain exports could continue to rise, by around 6%, while EU cereal imports, particularly from Ukraine, is expected to fall by 35%.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/82u (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)