UFU backs EU farm support package

Proposals put forward by Brussels earlier this week, to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on agriculture, include the introduction of private storage aids for dairy and meat products; greater flexibility for market support measures and exceptional derogations from certain EU competition rules.

The Commission aims to have these measures adopted by the end of April.

Beforehand EU member states will need to be consulted, and vote on these measures. They are, therefore subject to change.

The package announced by EU Farm Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski follows a comprehensive package of other measures adopted early on by the Commission to support the agri-food sector in the current crisis.

These include increased amounts for state aid, higher advanced payments, and extended deadlines to submit payment requests.

Commenting on the Brussels’ initiative, UFU president Ivor Ferguson said: “The agri-food sector has taken a serious hit due to the coronavirus pandemic and all financial support to help sustain our industry is welcome. However, this package is mainly to encourage the prolonged storage of dairy and red meat products to help stabilise the market. It does not provide direct support for our farmers who are working endlessly behind the scenes to overcome all the challenges the virus has presented for their farm businesses.
“The EU Commission has stated that the Storage Aid will fund processors, allowing them to store products for a minimum of two months and a maximum of seven. The thinking behind this is that it will allow the market to find a better balance after experiencing a serious plunge in product demand when the hospitality sectors closed due to COVID-19.
“The market downturn is most acute and is already being felt by our farming families. We hope that this proposed package by the EU Commission will deliver, improving farmgate prices and having a knock-on-affect on family run farming businesses across Northern Ireland. However, it is important that the Commission monitors the effectiveness of the measures and be ready to come forward with additional measures, as necessary.”

Janusz Wojciechowski said: “The consequences of the coronavirus crisis are increasingly being felt in the agri-food sector and this is why we have decided to take swift action, in addition to the measures already taken since the outbreak of the crisis. The measures proposed are, in the present state of market developments, intended to send a signal aimed at stabilising markets and are considered to be the most appropriate for providing stability to future prices and production and thus stable food supplies and food security.”

He concluded: “I am confident that these measures will relieve markets, and show concrete results rapidly.”