Brussels, 08/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission recently adopted its Report 2000 on the agricultural situation in the European Union, in which it stresses that the year 2002 was mainly marked by three factors: - price recovery in the pig and poultry sectors, after the fall in 1999; - soaring oil prices, which entailed a very pronounced rise in energy costs and also in the cost of fertilisers; - and the collapse of the consumer price for beef, from October, because of the discovery of new cases of BSE in several Member States.
During the first ten months of the year 2000, Community exports of farm produce increased by 13.6% in value compared to the same period in 1999. They rose 7% in quantity and 27% in value for cereals, 22.6% in value for dairy produce (+84.7% for powdered milk and +19.8% for cheese), 22.7% for sugar, +27% for fruit and +7.2% for vegetables. Exports of olive oil increased 46.9% and wine exports increased 7.2%. Exports of pigmeat, which had reached a record level in 1999 rose 0.6% in volume and even had a stronger increase in value (+4.2%). Deliveries of poultry meat rose (+4.2% in value), while those of beef fell over 20%, in quantity as well as in value.
Furthermore, the Commission points out that the situation of stocks for most products benefiting from an intervention regime clearly improved, mainly in the cereals sector (7.8 million tonnes at the end of the month of September 2000, compared to 14.9 million tonnes early 2000), even if the situation for rye remains of concern (over 3 million tonnes of intervention stocks during the year).
On the whole, writes the Commission, the agricultural year has taken place in good climatic conditions, marked by a record cereals harvest, in an internal and international economic environment that is favourable not only in terms of economic growth but also in terms of competitiveness for our farm exports. It also specifies that the first estimates of agricultural income in the EU show 1.3% progression after the slight rise recorded in 1999 (+0.7%), but that these estimates should be reviewed downwards because of the fall in prices in the beef sector over the past quarter of the year.