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The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, confirmed on 08/01/2020 the EU's intention to remain a close ally of the United Kingdom after its withdrawal from the EU. According to Von der Leyen, the UK and the European Parliament should ratify the UK withdrawal agreement on 31/01/2020. According to the British Government, the aim of the government is a managed and fair transition to a system tailored to the needs of British farmers based on the principle of public finances, independent of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The transition should start in 2021 by reducing direct payments in the UK in a fair and progressive way. The money should be used to launch a national environmentally friendly pilot program for land management, so that strong environmental protection is maintained and high standards of food safety and animal welfare are not undermined. UK Finance Minister Sajid Javid pledged GBP 2.9 billion (EUR 3.4 billion) to support the UK agricultural sector in 2020. The aid package amounts to GBP 2.85 billion (EUR 3.36 billion) for 2020-2022.

Ministers of Environment met before Christmas at the Council of Ministers to discuss the proposal for a European Green Deal, which the Commission presented in mid-December 2019. They agreed on the commitment of the parties to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. During the ministerial meeting, Polish Environment Minister Michal Kurtyka said that for Poland, achieving carbon neutrality would be a longer and more difficult process than for most other countries. According to him, Poland will be ready to achieve carbon neutrality in the second half of the century. Environment ministers also discussed the financing of the European Green Deal - according to the Commission, a budget of up to EUR 100 billion should be provided for the transition to the rules of the European Green Deal (the financing plan should be published by the Commission on 14/01/2020). According to a number of ministers, funding should be provided from additional sources, not from budgets for Cohesion Policy and the CAP. Ministers also supported strengthening the protection of biodiversity.

During 2020, the European Commission should present an action plan to promote organic farming; according to representatives of the European Commission, work on the action plan is already at an advanced stage. According to the initial information, future support for organic farming should be based on demand rather than on mandatory supply - the action plan should therefore not include a mandatory acreage for organic farming. Farmers should adjust production and production costs in line with market requirements.

In December 2019, the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture confirmed another 27 cases of African swine fever infection in domestic pigs; one case of wild boar infected was also confirmed in Poland in December near the German border. In response, Germany decided to build a fence to prevent the spread of the disease in its own territory. Another five cases of infected wild boars were confirmed in Moldova, near the Romanian border. In China, the situation is gradually stabilizing; some provinces plan to achieve comparable pigmeat production this year as before the outbreak of the African swine fever in August 2018. However, because of the spread of the disease, China has banned the import of pork from Indonesia, where during the year 2019 up to 30,000 pigs died due to the spread of the disease. The disease continues to spread in Vietnam, where around 6 million pigs have been killed since February 2019.

Nestlé, a Swiss food giant, plans to sell a 60% stake in its processed meat business (namely 60% stake in German Herta) to the Spanish company Casa Tarradellas to focus more on plant-based alternatives to meat products. Nestlé should replace up to 10% of its range of meat products with plant-based products by the end of 2020, with a further expansion in the coming years. The sale of the stake should take place in the first half of 2020, Nestlé and Casa Tarradellas will continue to work together as a joint enterprise.
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