News

On 01/07/2022, the German Ministry of Agriculture confirmed two more cases of African swine fever (ASF) in farms. The first case in the western federal state of Lower Saxony, which has so far been free of ASF, the second case was reported in the federal state of Brandenburg. About 280 pigs and 1,500 piglets will have to be slaughtered at the farm in Emsland, Lower Saxony, near the border with the Netherlands. Within a radius of 10 kilometres from the outbreak, there are almost 300 farms with a total of about 195,000 pigs. The closed zone, which extends into the neighbouring district, prohibits the movement of pigs, only passage with additional vehicle controls is allowed.
More information is available here and here.

On 02/06/2022, the European institutions reached a political agreement on the revision of the Statistics on agricultural inputs and outputs (SAIO). The revision was drawn up as part of an effort to consolidate and streamline the way the EU collects data in the agricultural sector. The regulation applies to statistics in the field of agricultural production, prices, nutrients and plant protection products; the aim is to strike a balance between improving the quality of agricultural data collected to better reflect the reality on the ground and incorporating this data into policy decisions. The political agreement was voted on 12/07/2022 by the EP Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, which approved the agreement.
More information is available here.

The Dutch government last month introduced targets to reduce harmful nitrogen compounds by 2030 in response to Dutch and European court orders. According to estimates, it is necessary to reduce the use of ammonia in fertilizers and reduce the number of farm animals by 30% to achieve the goals. Dutch farmers on 04/07/2022 protested the government's goals by blocking supermarket distribution centres in several cities. Road blockades by farmers disrupted traffic on roads in the east and north of the country. In one case, there was even a sharp clash between the police and the protesters, the police opened fire against the protesters with live rounds, no one was injured.
More information is available here.

The European consumer organization BEUC filed a complaint against the alleged non-transparency of the campaigns fighting against the introduction of the Nutri-Score system. BEUC filed a complaint with the Secretariat of the Transparency Register against the "No-Nutri-Score Alliance" campaign and the activities of the Brussels consulting company Must&Partners, according to BEUC, both the campaign and the consulting company violate the EU code of conduct in the field of transparency, they provide incomplete information about the real mutual relationships and interests they represent, nor do they fully inform about the sources of their funding. According to BEUC, the complaint has nothing to do with the discussion of the advantages or disadvantages of the Nutri-Score label, it is based only on non-transparency and unfairness. However, BEUC has been a supporter of the Nutri-Score for several years, which BEUC believes should be based on sound scientific evidence.
More information is available here.

The political group of the European Parliament Renew Europe published on 06/07/2022 an action plan for food security and for responding to the Ukrainian crisis. The faction calls on the European Union to reassess and prioritize the solution to the food crisis to ensure greater investment and innovation. Renew Europe also recommends rethinking crisis management, humanitarian aid, trade, development and cooperation policies. In addition, the list of recommendations includes the creation of solidarity corridors, increasing logistics capacity, securing EU risks in the transport of Ukrainian agricultural products and supporting Ukrainian farmers. Renew Europe also proposes that enabling the widespread use of organic fertilizers and the introduction of organic farming practices, which will reduce farmers' dependence on external inputs and meet the objectives of the Green Deal, the Farm to Fork Strategy and the Biodiversity Strategy, are addressed.
Action plan is available here.