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The German Federal Audit Office has sharply criticized the parties' plans of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture (BMEL) to introduce national voluntary animal welfare labelling. Labelling is one of the priorities of the Federal Minister of Agriculture Julia Klöckner. The auditors from the Audit Office criticize specially the absence of a feasibility study of costs, including a comparison of costs with the benefits of the proposed labelling. The auditors therefore recommended that the introduction of voluntary labelling should not be continued on a provisional basis. The German process is also being followed by the European Commission, which was called upon to introduce a voluntary harmonized pan-European animal welfare label through approved Council conclusions in December 2020.
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A coalition of 162 NGOs, mostly environmental organizations, sent a letter to the European Commission on 30/04/2021, disagreeing with the Commission's plan to deregulate new breeding techniques. These techniques are now governed by the same rules as GMOs, against which many agricultural organizations and some members of the European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development are protesting. As part of the Farm to Fork strategy, the European Commission stated that it would be appropriate to consider whether new breeding techniques should continue to fall under the strict legislative framework for GMOs. However, the coalition does not agree, according to which organisms obtained using new techniques must continue to be regulated by existing GMO standards in the EU. The discussion is currently leading to the labelling of GMO foods. According to a recent survey, up to 86% of respondents supported the introduction of labelling of foods containing genetically modified crops as "GMO foods". Almost 81% of respondents also supported the "genetically modified" label of animal products when animals were fed GMO feed.
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Member States are not united on protecting bees from pesticides. While France supports a ban on pesticides killing more than 7% of bee populations, Spain supports a much higher mortality limit for bee populations, up to 23.2%. France's position is also supported by environmental organizations, while Spain's position is criticized by environmental organizations because, according to them, it could practically eradicate bee populations in the EU. However, Spain's position is based on a survey conducted by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which showed that bee populations normally fluctuate in the range of 23.2% even without pesticides.

On 31/03/2021, the European Commission published a report on the development of trade in agri-food products in 2020. The value of exports from the EU increased compared to 2019 to €184.3 billion (+ 1.4%), imports to €122, 2 billion (+ 0.5%). In total, a surplus of €62 billion (+ 3%) was achieved. The main export destinations were China (+ €3.22 billion), Switzerland (+ €675 million) and the Middle East and North Africa Region (MENA), especially Saudi Arabia (+ €648 million), Algeria (+ €494 million) and Morocco. (+ €413 million). Imports to the EU increased significantly from Canada (+ €1.05 billion), while Ukraine (- €1 billion) and the USA (- €626 million) decreased. In commodities, exports of pork (+ €2.12 billion), exports of wheat (+ €1.70 billion) and pet food (+ €557 million) increased.
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On 30/03/2021, the European Commission published a short-term outlook on trends in the agri-food sector. The Commission expects prices and global consumption of all major cereals to rise in the coming years, with production projected to increase by 5.3% for cereals and by 3.4% for oilseeds compared to 2019. Protein crop production is expected to increase by 5.2%. Sugar production in the EU is estimated at a five-year low due to the widespread disease of viral jaundice in sugar beet in France. EU beef production fell by 1.2% in 2020 and is expected to fall further by 0.9%.
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