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Despite the ongoing war in Ukraine, Ukraine is expected to export approximately 65-70 million tons of grain and oilseeds in the next twelve months. This was confirmed by Deputy Minister of Agriculture Taras Vysotsky. It should be 22 million tons of surpluses from last year's harvest and 38-43 million tons of this year's harvest. This season, approximately 27 million tons of corn should be harvested (last year it was 40 million tons), 20 million of which will be intended for export, mainly for animal feed. According to Vysocki, thanks to this, Ukraine will be able to compensate for the drop in production in the EU caused by the drought. The transport routes between the EU and Ukraine are now optimally balanced, with roughly 3 million tons of goods moving through them every month. The goal is to boost exports to 5 to 6 million tons of agricultural products to bring exports back to pre-war levels.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs of South Korea has decided, based on intensive high-level cooperation between the European Commission and South Korea, to resume imports of pork and poultry meat products from the EU from 05/09/2022. Korea has begun to recognize the EU's strict regionalization measures to contain outbreaks of African swine fever and highly pathogenic avian influenza. This decision could enable trade of more than one billion euros in the coming years. The decision will affect 11 EU countries which have been allowed to export poultry meat and products to the Republic of Korea (DE, PL, HU, BE, FR, FI, ES, NL, SE, DK and LT) and 14 Member States which are allowed to export pork and pork products (DE, PL, HU, BE, FR, FI, ES, NL, SE, DK, SK, AT, IE and PT). With this decision, South Korea further aligns its import conditions with the commitments it has accepted under the WTO and the trade agreement between the EU.
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On 31/08/2022, the European Commission approved the first package of CAP strategic plans for Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Poland, Portugal and Spain. All these countries sent their proposals to the Commission during December 2021, at the latest by 01/01/2022. The approval process therefore lasted nine months. The first seven countries will thus have four months to implement the new rules, the new rules should enter into force from January 2023. For these seven countries, more than €120 billion is allocated under the CAP, i.e., almost half of the total CAP budget for the period 2023 – 2027 (€270 billion). After approving the first batch of plans, the European Commission stated that its goal is to approve the remaining proposals as quickly as possible but did not specify an expected timetable.
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High energy prices in Europe are leading to shutdowns of large fertilizer plants, which will further have a negative impact on the rest of the food supply chain. Spain and France have therefore asked the European Commission for closer cooperation with the aim of ending blackouts caused by the sharp rise in gas prices. French Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau and his Spanish counterpart Luis Planas said that the EU must end its dependence on Russian gas, must strengthen its own self-sufficiency in fertilizer production. Fesneau stressed that in the short term, the EU needs to adopt a similar strategy as it adopted to reduce the EU's dependence on Russian fossil fuels (REPowerEU), also for fertilisers. During the Czech presidency, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala decided to convene an extraordinary meeting of ministers dealing with energy issues. The date has not yet been set, but according to the Czech Minister of Industry and Trade, Jozef Síkela, the meeting should take place as soon as possible.
More information is available here and here.

The Committee of the European Parliament for Agriculture and Rural Development (COMAGRI) met for the first time after the summer break on 31/08/2022, the main point of the meeting was the presentation of representatives of the European Commission regarding the proposal to revise the directive on the sustainable use of pesticides. The Commission submitted the proposal at the end of June 2022, just before the summer break, so the proposal was formally presented to the COMAGRI committee only last week. In its presentation, the European Commission focused on summarizing the main features of the proposal but did not deal with the issue of possible impacts of the proposal, which was criticized by the majority of COMAGRI members.
More information is available here and here.