“Only the French would elect a Socialist in the midst of a recession,” a friend remarked to me this week. While French voters were not the only ones to veer to the Left last weekend, the idea that a government would desert the path of belt-tightening followed by much of the continent, as Hollande’s rhetoric is seen as threatening to do, does indeed buck the mainstream trend somewhat. In the midst of cries for budget culls and the watering down of the European Commission’s plan … More →

Fresh moves from Argentina towards ‘resource nationalism’ may well stymie attempts to boost agricultural trade between Mercosur members and the European Union. Recent sabre rattling in Buenos Aires over the future sovereignty of the Falkland Islands (Las Malvinas) has since been followed by the seizure of Spanish oil and gas giant Repsol’s interests in Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF), both moves driven by Argentina’s longer-term need to ensure energy security in the context of rising imports. Several countries have already voiced serious concerns over these tactics … More →

Future growth for fertiliser demand is chiefly seen in the developing world, not just because of population growth, but even more so due to dietary changes and rising meat consumption. “We see stable use in mature markets such as the European Union, and some growth in North America for export crops. But the big growth areas are Asia, Latin America and particularly Brazil, where there is the land area for crop development,” said Barrie Bain, director of fertiliser information at Fertecon consultancy, recently acquired by … More →

While visiting farms in the Jura region of France last month, I witnessed how only a of trickle of farm subsidies are needed to unlock investment and grant farmers access to the credit needed to be weaned off subsidies. Most farmers in the region receive around €3 000 a year in direct payments. But the ones I met were proud to have made further investments using the money, meaning farm aid did not make up a large part of their income in the end. A … More →

One of the eligible reasons for giving farmers extra cash under the CAP’s Less Favoured Areas (LFA) scheme is that it is harder to manage land and livestock on steep landscape such as mountains. EU member states are to be allowed to use up to 5% of their Pillar One envelope for LFAs – to be known as ‘Areas with Natural constraints’ (ANCs) from 2014 under the European Commission’s plans for CAP reform. But what if being in a LFA was the factor ultimately adding … More →

With economic austerity across the Eurozone, and sluggish growth forecast for coming years, some critics are calling for a wholesale liberalisation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). In a new pamphlet for the UK-based Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Séan Rickard argues that the way Brussels currently spends its €55 billion budget is actually leading to more inefficient farming practices and higher food costs for consumers, mainly through its continued rejection of GM crops. “The current EU review of the CAP should instead be looking … More →

The debate over the future shape of EU agriculture policy reached the mainstream UK media yesterday. A programme in the BBC’s investigative current affairs series ‘Panorama’ took a look at direct aid payments and the various anomalies which the current system creates. The programme picked up two key themes: the apparent ease with which ordinary people in some parts of the UK can register themselves as ‘farmers’ and purchase entitlements to receive the Single Farm Payment; and the fact that significant numbers of very wealthy … More →

Sales of organic food products in the UK fell by 3.7% in 2011, according to the latest market analysis by the Soil Association, which held its one-day Annual General Meeting in London last week. This was the third successive annual decline in the UK organic market, which is now more than 20% down from its 2008 peak. Several speakers at the event seemed to be aware that there was a problem with the public image of organic food in Britain, both in how it is portrayed and … More →

So the recent saga over the EU’s internal food aid scheme is over, for now – the EU institutions having found a compromise to continue it this year and next, with no plan as of yet for 2014 onwards. ‘Aid for the Needy’ will carry on until the end of 2013, with 100% EU funding and the possibility to take food from the market as well as intervention stocks, after Germany dropped its opposition in the short term (see AE2502, 21.02.12, page 2). It is something … More →

This week’s penning of a pact to liberalise around half of all food trade between the EU and Morocco demonstrated the need to keep the European Commission on a leash as it negotiates deals, inevitably behind closed doors, on behalf of the 27 EU countries. It was upon the request of member states that the Commission went on the offensive to secure as much cheap access to raw materials as possible and import much back into the EU tariff-free. However, while sounding advantageous, a little … More →