Luxembourg, 21/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - At the request of many Member States (Austria, Czech Republic, Spain, France, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia in particular), the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mariann Fischer Boel, announced at the Agricultural Council on Tuesday in Luxembourg that she would reopen contract awarding for exports, with refunds, of wheat, barley, rye and oats from the Community free market. The Commission will also put to Thursday's “cereals” management committee that 500,000 tonnes of fodder cereals be transferred to Spain from the so-called land-locked Member States of Eastern Europe. Spain has a significant shortage of these products due to drought.
The Commission pointed out that cereal stocks at the end of the marketing year amount to 17 million tonnes, half of which are in the landlocked countries of Eastern Europe. According to data available, the 2005-2006 marketing campaign should return to a more normal level of production (around 260 million tonnes). The most recent harvest was particularly sizeable (285 million tonnes).