EU agricultural measures reduce production in the countryside by up to 15%

The greater environmental demands when producing in the fields or on farms, together with excessive bureaucracy, have become the main concerns of farmers and ranchers when carrying out their agricultural activity.

This situation today is not only a complaint from the agricultural sector throughout the European Union.

Criticism arises within the Commission itself, as evidenced by a report from the Community Research Center, JRC, in an analysis of the effects of the “From the field to the table” and “Biodiversity 2030” strategies by the that a reduction in the use of fertilizers of 20% and 50% in phyto and animal health products is proposed.

According to reports from that official Center, its application would mean a reduction in production between 5% and 15%, with livestock activity being the most affected.

The unrest goes beyond the freezing or reduction of direct community funds from the CAP, although they have not been updated based on inflation to compensate for their income and defend their income.

For the sector, this set of measures, both for agricultural and livestock activities, will mean not only an increase in production costs, but also a reduction in the volume of supply, with falling prices in many cases encouraged by imports of products obtained in third countries under very different conditions from costs to food safety.

This strategy would also mean a decrease in exports, especially in cereals, pork or poultry, with the consequent worsening of foreign trade also in other productions such as seeds, fruits and vegetables, sheep or beef, with an increase by 10% in production costs.

The current community drift that accumulates so many conditions affects the reduction of treatments, surfaces, maintenance of hedges, boundaries, protection margins in rivers, the so-called reinforced conditionality.

In the case of livestock farms, the animal welfare policy, with the obligation to increase the surface area per unit in more or less intensive farms, already implies an increase in their size, plus fixed costs for expansion to produce the same.

To all this, in both cases, farmers and ranchers, is added the multiplication of bureaucracy and paperwork for the control of the activity, where the requirement of the Exploitation Notebook stands out, the entry into force of which has been postponed until the autumn of This year, it is not a new initiative.

Altogether, this is another chapter in the ups and downs policy developed by Brussels in recent decades in agricultural policy.

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Why are farmers protesting in Spain?

Faced with the high surpluses in milk, meat, cereals or wine in the eighties caused by the psychosis to ensure supply and avoid the external dependence that cost emptying the community coffers for their export, in the early nineties Commissioner McvSharry gave a radical change aimed at lowering supply with a 10% abandonment of cultivated areas, penalizing production for exceeding quotas or areas, support for enlarging crops or for the protection of the landscape.

Today, decades later, the rise of environmentalist positions continues against the balance demanded by the sector due to the need to produce at costs that support a competitive position against imports from third countries.

Prices, income and Chain Law

Along with the fight against the greater environmental demands and control of the activity from the bureaucracy, the agricultural sector also has as a key objective the profitability of its activity and for this, compliance with the Food Chain Law is on paper. , a basic provision that guarantees prices that ensure income that at least covers production costs.

However, one thing has been the 2014 Law improved in recent years to avoid sales at a loss, and another is reality.

Its application has had a significant increase in funds to exceed 14 million euros to improve its effectiveness with more actions, more personnel with an important balance where, among its many data, more than 3,000 sanctions totaling 14 million euros stand out. .

The sector demands the need for the Chain Observatory to permanently update the average reference prices in costs and to continue increasing the means for its action.

The Law of the Chain is today the most important when it comes to supporting the profitability of agricultural operations by requiring that prices cover production costs.

However, its application is more complex for two reasons.

On the one hand, due to the inequality of power between the seller, generally a farmer or rancher versus an industry, large intermediaries or a distribution group.

On the other hand, due to the fact that these are perishable, agricultural or livestock products that in some cases cannot be stored or their collection postponed and animals that must leave the farm to stop feeding costs whose weight cannot exceed ceilings because it runs the risk of losing value in the markets.

In these circumstances, selling is an “obligation” compared to those who buy is a simple, cheaper act with the ability to wait or look for another supplier.

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