News

A new EU sugar market observatory was launched on 11 July with a first meeting of EU sugar experts and officials from the Commission's agriculture and rural development department. Sugar is the latest product to benefit from an observatory, following milk and meat; a fourth observatory, covering crops, will be launched soon. The website of the EU Sugar Market Observatory is available here.

The environment committee votes Tuesday (11 July) on plans to make EU countries plant more forest to compensate for changes in land use. The Internal market committee votes Thursday (13 July) on proposals to promote organic and waste-based fertilisers as well as set limits on how much heavy metals such as cadmium they can contain.

Global food commodity prices are projected to remain low over the next decade compared to previous peaks, as demand growth in a number of emerging economies is expected to slow down and biofuel policies have a diminished impact on markets, according to the latest 10-year agricultural outlook published today (10 July) by the OECD and FAO. Read more.

European citizens believe that agricultural policy should continue to be managed at the EU level, and that helping farmers and protecting the environment should be its two main goals. These are among the key findings of the public consultation published on modernising and simplifying the Common Agricultural Policy, which received more than 322,000 submissions from a wide range of stakeholders, including farmers, citizens, organisations and other interested parties. Read more.

France will take steps to restrict the use of palm oil in producing biofuels in order to reduce deforestation in the countries of origin, French Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot said on Thursday (6 July). Read more.