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At the Agriculture and Fisheries Council on November 15, a number of member states expressed concern about the impact of rising production costs on the agricultural sector in particular, energy and raw materials used for animal feed production.
The sudden increase in the price of natural gas has multiplied the price of nitrogen fertilisers almost threefold, which is causing a slowdown in purchases by farmers and a decrease in the production of these fertilisers by the industry. The same is happening with the rest of the fertilisers, whose raw materials are also being affected by the upward spiral of the international markets. This leads to situations where farmers have to change their crop rotation (with less cereals), reduce their fertilizer inputs and thereby contradicting cornerstones of principles of Integrated Pest Management, and finally leading to a decrease in yields and crop quality this season.
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain will call on the Commission to closely monitor the evolution of markets linked to agricultural inputs, particularly in relation to fertilisers, energy and raw materials for animal feed, because of the impact they have on the production costs of farmers and livestock farmers and on the availability of harvests.
December 9, 2021/ Council of the European Union/ European Union.
https://data.consilium.europa.eu/
