Farmers won’t get back €425m fund
That is how much EU farmers have contributed this year to a crisis reserve designed to help EU agriculture through unforeseen difficulties.
With only a few weeks to go to the end of the EU financial year, it looked like the crisis reserve would go unused, and €425 million would be added to farmers’ direct payment receipts in the 2015 financial year.
This would have brought total CAP spending next year to €59.2 billion, or virtually the same as in this year’s budget (in fact, a drop of 0.1%).
However, EU Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos has already highlighted the availability of the crisis reserve to help farmers hit by the Russian ban.
Ahead of today’s meeting of senior agricultural experts from all Member States, to discuss the EU response to Russia’s ban decision, he said, “I understand the concern expressed in the EU farming sector.
“I want to underline that the Common Agricultural Policy has new and modernised tools to stand by them, as soon as it is needed, including our crisis reserve, which is already available now.
“I am confident that our resilient farm sector will re-orient rapidly towards new markets and opportunities.
“But there must be support to help this transition happen smoothly. This requires a joined up, European response.
“As always when market situations require, I have already instructed my services to establish a task force to analyse the potential impacts sector by sector, and to assess how we can effectively provide meaningful support if and where this is needed.”
The EU’s fruit and vegetable sector is likely to be prioritised for help.
Its exports to Russia account for about €2.4bn out of €14bn of EU food and agricultural exports to Russia.
Even before the Russian ban, the European market for summer fruits was depressed, with prices for peaches and nectarines 30-50% less than in 2013, due to high production volumes and poor weather conditions.
Growers had already called for the EU to finance market withdrawals, in order to rebalance supply and demand, especially in southern Europe.
Countries hardest hit by the ban could include Greece, to which an estimated 3,000 trucks carrying Greek peaches and nectarines had already been turned back from Russian borders, within three days of the ban in imports of food and agricultural products from countries that have imposed sanctions against Russia.
