Avoid both falling prices and food waste. Faced with the difficulties of selling certain foods due to the Covid-19 epidemic, agricultural unions and an MEP ask the European Union to support the building up of stocks.
"Some agricultural products will soon be in surplus because they cannot be transported or sold," said Eric Andrieu, MEP in charge of Agriculture, in a press release published on Friday. "To avoid serious deregulation of food prices, the closure of thousands of farms across Europe or even unprecedented food waste, it is urgent and essential that Europe accelerates the establishment of food stocks", considers this socialist MEP, who called on the European Commission on this subject.
Agricultural products will soon be in surplus because they cannot be sold. To avoid serious price deregulation, farm closings or unprecedented food waste, Europe must put in place food stocks! Https: //t.co/Nelnufwre1
- Eric Andrieu (@EricAndrieuEU) April 3, 2020Markets, canteens and restaurant are closed
"Europe can and must aid producers and manufacturers who stock products that cannot find a buyer," he insisted, adding that "several European states" were demanding such a measure.
In France, certain products, such as PDO cheeses or fresh fish, are in short supply because of the closure of restaurants, the majority of markets and even canteens. "We will not be able to find outlets for everything," said FNSEA president Christiane Lambert on Thursday during a press point on Twitter.
“This is the reason why we turned to the Minister of Agriculture, to ask Brussels to consider as soon as possible (…) financial support mechanisms, in order to be able to store, postpone, freeze, in short , ensuring that products are not thrown away or destroyed, and that the economic loss for producers is mitigated, "she said.
Dairy products and lamb meat
"We must avoid any stall between agricultural prices and farmers' production costs", also underlines a joint press release from FNSEA and Young Farmers who want the EU to undertake "specific action such as private storage or volume control" . For its part, the Family Farmers' Defense Movement (Modef) "demands public storage of dairy products and lamb meat in the European Union," according to a press release published on Friday.
The agricultural union recalls that such a measure had been put in place in 1984 for butter, which had made it possible to "regulate production and maintain prices for French producers". The measure had been accompanied by the creation of quotas. Thus, Modef requests that "milk quotas can be reintroduced for 18 months corresponding to the maximum duration of storage of butter".
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