Today’s meeting comes ahead of the Agriculture Council on Monday where NFU President Meurig Raymond and the other UK farming unions will meet with Secretary of State Liz Truss to discuss the current market situation.
NFU chief dairy adviser Sian Davies, speaking from the Copa Milk meeting, said: “Too many short term solutions are being thrown around without clear thoughts of the long term impact. Today is about learning what’s happening in other member states and agreeing where we clearly need the Commission to step in.
“We need to ensure the current market management measures are fit for purpose – look at increasing the threshold for intervention volumes so we don’t hit limits mid spring flush and a complete review of the intervention system to ensure it reacts quicker next time. Commissioner Hogan should ensure the Agri Market Task Force delivers on solutions to support farmers and the supply chain through periods of market volatility. The Commission can also look at ensuring that input costs are fair and that includes removing EU import tariffs on fertiliser.
“Any discussions on supply management should be between suppliers and their milk purchaser and not at government or European level. This is why we need more talks between these two parties – either through producer groups and producer organisations.
“At national level we need government to support the increased adoption of the voluntary code of contracts between milk suppliers and farmers, to provide further information and financial support in the setting up of producer groups and leading the charge on strengthening the voluntary code on labelling.”
The NFU is calling for the following actions:-
EU:
- The European Investment Bank (EIB) to speed up its work to refinance farm borrowings
- The European Institutions to take steps to alleviate the problems farmers are facing in the wake of the Russian ban
- The dairy intervention price thresholds to be reviewed.
- Fertiliser import tariffs to be removed to boost competition in the European fertiliser sector.
Government:
- The RPA to speed up BPS payments and ensure that this is not a problem in future years.
- Improvements to the labelling of dairy products to ensure consumers are buying British
- Government agencies doing more to support the public procurement of British food.