Brussels, 02/08/2005 (Agence Europe) - Last Friday, the European Commission published a report entitled “Prospects for agricultural markets and income 2005-2012”. Medium term prospects are quite favourable for cereals, meat and dairy produce, the report states, although the rise in cereal stocks in 2004 will continue to weigh on markets over the next two years. Community meat markets have returned to normal after the extreme conditions in recent years. The current situation on the beef market, where consumption is higher than domestic production, is expected to continue throughout the 2005-2012 period. The production and the consumption of pig and poultry should continue to increase in the medium term. The EU dairy sector is expected to display a decline in the production of butter and skimmed milk products (SMP) over the medium term as more milk is used for the production of cheese and other high value-added dairy products. These medium-term projections should lead to an 11.7% growth in EU25 agricultural income between 2004 and 2012 in real terms and per labour unit (4% in the old Member States and a steady 50.4% rise for the new Member States, i.e. 137% compared to the pre-enlargement period. The report may be consulted at the following address: http: //europa.eu.int/comm/agriculture/publi/caprep/prospects2005/index_en.htm).