Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has announced she’ll not seek a second term in office. Unlike predecessors Franz Fischler and Ray MacSharry there is no round of CAP reform named after her and perhaps it is to make up for this that the Commission has just published a new leaflet.… Read the rest
Timetable for the next ‘truly big’ CAP reform
Roger Waite, one of the sharpest analysts of EU farm policy writes at farmpolicy.com on the timetable for the next CAP reform. Definitely worth reading.
“Analysis from Brussels”- by Roger Waite- Towards the Next, Truly Big CAP Reform- The Timetable … Read the rest
Timetable for the next 'truly big' CAP reform
Roger Waite, one of the sharpest analysts of EU farm policy writes at farmpolicy.com on the timetable for the next CAP reform. Definitely worth reading.
“Analysis from Brussels”- by Roger Waite- Towards the Next, Truly Big CAP Reform- The Timetable … Read the rest
Addressing the dairy crisis – is US intervention buying a good thing for EU producers?
Today, the US raised its intervention support prices for some dairy products as a way of supporting the US farm price for milk. The support price for skimmed milk powder was increased by 15 percent and for cheddar cheese by 16 per cent for a limited 3-month period. Immediately milk prices on the Chicago Mercentile Exchange increased by 5 per cent, and it is estimated that the measure will add $243 million to US dairy farm incomes in the current year.
From a European perspective, this measure has ambiguous effects and may even be welcomed for its short-run effects. In the short run, the Commodity Credit Corporation will enter the market as an additional buyer, raising the floor price of milk. While only US milk products are eligible for support, as a major dairy exporter this action is going to help to strengthen world market prices, to the benefit also of EU producers.… Read the rest
Where to find data on EU export refunds?
Recently, I was looking for an internet source for EU export refunds – not overall expenditure, but the refund rates for individual commodities by month. What I was hoping to find was an Excel worksheet which set out this information, but it seems extraordinarily hard to come by. The nearest I could get was the excellent webpage on export refunds for milk and meat products maintained by OFIVAL, the French marketing agency. However, the data here take the form of pdf files containing the information every time the refund levels are changed, and it would be extremely tedious to transfer this into an Excel file. Another excellent site is Datum, hosted by the UK Dairyco. Here the information on export refunds for dairy products is updated weekly, and it is also possible to download an Excel file with historical data, but of course the data only covers dairy. The Commission’s CIRCA network also seems to have pdf versions of export refunds – you can view the sugar data here – but access to CIRCA more generally and to its interest groups requires one to register so I don’t know if similar information for other CAP commodities is also available here.… Read the rest
Does farm size influence environmental outcomes?
A widely-accepted justification for subsidising agriculture is that we need to prevent the emergence of the industrialised, mono-cultural agriculture which is the inevitable result of an efficiency-based, cost-oriented farming model by protecting the diversified, environmentally-friendly small farmer in order to maintain the positive environmental benefits of European agriculture. This is part of the philosophy of agrarianism which underpins much discussion of agricultural policy.
Let us leave aside for the moment the fact that the bulk of existing farm subsidies go to larger farmers rather than smaller ones, so that even if the thesis above is valid, current agricultural policy does not support it. My interest is in the evidence for the thesis itself. Is it the case that small farms are better for the environment?… Read the rest
Health check redux and commodity market worries
There is an excellent piece of analysis from Roger Waite, editor of Agra Facts, on the final health check legal texts and the current situation in commodity markets. Falling prices are worrying farmers and piling the pressure on policy makers to turn the clock back on the CAP, with the ink barely dry on the health check.
Read Roger’s insights over at farmpolicy.com.… Read the rest
The great targeting debate
Czech agriculture minister Petr Gandalovic made an curious statement at the informal Agriculture Council meeting held earlier this week in the French Alps. Mr Gandalovic, who will assume the chairmanship of the Council under the Czech EU Presidency in the first half of 2009, told his colleagues:
“The more specific you make the policy, the more room you give to bureaucrats who make the decisions. Non-targeted payments give more power to farmers.”
In case it’s not clear, Mr Gandalovic was making the case against targeted payments. In doing so, perhaps inadvertently, he touched on a question that goes to the very heart of the debate about the future of the CAP: the extent to which the CAP’s 54 billion euros of annual public expenditure should be targeted on clearly defined objectives and measurable outcomes. It is a debate raging right now within DG Agriculture, a power struggle that is pitting CAP ‘modernisers’ who seek a greater role for the current rural development pillar against CAP ‘consolidators’ who defend the “Fischler settlement” and the current Commission Health Check agenda.… Read the rest
+++New WTO modalities paper is published+++
Full details at the WTO’s website. WTO Director General Pascal Lamy said:
“These revised texts set the stage for a decisive moment in the Doha round. Ministers and other senior officials will soon arrive for intensive negotiations the week of 21 July. They need negotiating documents which are clear and precise as they consider the complex issues of agriculture and industrial goods trade. These texts go a very long way in that direction. These negotiations have been long and tough but the prize awaiting us should we reach agreement is worth the effort. A deal to open trade in agriculture and goods means more growth, better prospects for development and a more stable and predictable trading system. We must not let this opportunity slip through our fingers.”
The main issues currently under negotiation that impact the CAP are in the market access pillar and relate to tariff issues, particularly the scale and handling of ‘sensitive products’ that get partial exemption from the across-the-board tariff cuts.… Read the rest
Mapping the CAP 1: Google maps v farmsubsidy.org
Over at farmsubsidy.org you can see the first fruits of a mapping project which aims to place every EU farm subsidy payment on a fully interactive web-based map, powered by the excellent Google Maps. The first country to get the mapping treatment is Sweden, chosen because its government has been by far the most transparent in terms of farm subsidy payments. The map displays some € 7 billion in CAP expenditure in 2 million payments to 114,700 recipients since 2000. We think the map-based interface is a fascinating new platform for bringing the CAP closer to the citizens that pay for it. Now that Sweden is done, other countries will follow.