In light of the serious situation the EU dairy sector finds itself in today, CEJA welcomes any additional support package to address the crisis. However, considering that young farmers – many of whom having invested for the future prior to the crisis and who are now faced with crippling cash flow problems and mounting debt – are the most vulnerable to price shocks, CEJA calls on any rescue package to prioritise young farmers in its support measures. It is crucial that we assist young farmers in times of crises because they are the most likely to lose their farms; before many of them have even had the chance to get a foothold in the sector. CEJA would also like to remind Ministers that, although the dairy sector in particular needs urgent support, all farming sectors are currently in crisis, and all therefore need additional support measures if they are to survive these difficult times.
Speaking on the subject ahead of the Council meeting, CEJA President Alan Jagoe stated that: “As the EU institutions have acknowledged by incorporating mandatory young farmers’ measures into the last reform of the CAP, young farmers require additional help to enter the sector and to stay afloat in it if we are to secure a future for European farming. This has never been more the case than it is today: we are in a time of considerable, and potentially irreversibly damaging, crisis.”.
You can read CEJA’s June statement requesting immediate action in response to the agricultural market crisis here
