Speaking at an event organised by the Wallonian Farmers Organisation (FWA) at the Fair, Copa President Albert Jan Maat said “The key words are export export export. The Libramont Fair shows what the Belgian agriculture and horticulture sector are capable of. A great showcase for the craftsmanship of European farmers and horticulturalists. But farmers deserve better prices for this achievement. Unfortunately, too often politics influences this process and it is difficult for them to obtain a healthy position on the market. The Russian boycott of our products is a case in point. There needs to be a much more adequate and solution-oriented approach from the European Institutions. The focus should be on developing a far more powerful strategy for exporting outside the EU. The EU institutions must defend us farmers and cooperatives of the Union. If they cannot do this, the desperate economic situation of ours asks for some new thinking how to do it”.
FWA President Mr Coulonval also warned of a catastrophic situation in the EU dairy, pork, beef and grain sectors, with EU dairy prices declining since 2014,and called urgently for EU action. www.foiredelibramont.com
In particular, Copa and Cogeca want the EU Commission to advance the direct payments before the 1st of December and to ensure that the 2014/2015 superlevy is returned to the dairy sector to help dairy farmers with their cash flow problems. The EU milk intervention price also needs to be raised to take account of higher production costs. Opening new markets is a key component of the future for EU dairy producers as dairy products will become one of the cheapest animal protein in the world food demand #dairyaction
