Brussels, 19/02/2008 (Agence Europe) - In the evening of Monday 18 February, the European Commission rejected the request from several member states (including Germany, France, Denmark, Ireland, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovenia) to increase, at least provisionally, the current amount for pigmeat export refunds. This export aid was re-introduced on 30 November 2007 at the request of producers, who had been in difficult straits for several months (see EUROPE 9555).
The only concession granted by Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel was the three-month extension to the period from which pigmeat withdrawn from the market by virtue of private storage (some 100,000 tonnes) can be put back on the market. The Commission hopes, thus, to see a rise in pigmeat prices. The private storage aid scheme was started at the end of October 2007 and was replaced by export aid at the end of November. Stored meat was due to have started being put back on the market in March. This deadline has now been put back for three months.
French Agriculture Minister Michel Barnier said that this measure (extending the time meat can be privately stored) could prove inadequate to resolve the “serious crisis” among producers. He said that he, along with other countries, had argued, for the moment in vain, for an increase of €31 per 100kg to €70/100kg for export refunds. According to the latest information received by the Commission, requests for refunds for pigmeat had been submitted for 161,740 tonnes, which equates to Community funding of around €50 million. (L.C.)