0
According to Copa-Cogeca final EU-27 cereals estimates for the 2012/13 marketing year, claiming EU production is expected to drop by 2.2%, highlighting the need to maintain full production capacity in the future to meet growing demand.
Ian Backhouse, Chairman of the Working Party stressed “Europe is divided in 3 zones. Spain and Portugal were hit by drought this year whilst frost kill and bad weather for the harvest had a bad impact on wheat production in many Member States causing production to go down by 1.8% .The centre of Europe had good harvest conditions The area which was destroyed was replaced by cereal varieties with a lower yield. Despite an increased maize area, production will fall as a result of bad weather conditions during the spring period. It is clear now that we do not have cereal mountains in the EU, and world stocks are also pretty low. EU cereals production is down this year by as much as 6 million tons, and similar trends have been found in other parts of the world, with severe drought reported in the US and Russia.
These new harvest results show how important it is for the EU to keep its full production capacity in order to maintain self sufficiency in this basic product for EU consumers. Copa-Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen insisted “The future Common Agricultural Policy must maintain EU production capacity and ensure farmers have sufficient flexibility to develop their best crop rotation in response to market demand. The Commissions’ new greening measures are also estimated to reduce production by up to 3% and this must be revised. As cereals are traded throughout the season, the average cereals price traded at farm level is lower than the price on the futures market. Policy decisions should consequently be based on the price traded at farm level and not on futures price”.
Friday September 28, 2012/ COPA-COGECA/ European Union.
http://www.copa-cogeca.be
