Speaking after his re-election, Chairman of Copa & Cogeca Working Party Antonio Tavares said “The EU pork market is steadily recovering since the crisis in the last years and our strategies to contain the spread of African Swine Fever (ASF) in pigs have proved to be successful. It will consequently be a priority for me during my two year mandate to reflect on EU strategies to fully eradicate the disease. It will also be a major priority for me to work on finding new market outlets for our produce and to eliminate non-tariff barriers to trade to for example Japan, Ukraine, Mexico and Columbia.
For instance, they need to accept our principle of regionalisation so that products are only banned in the region where the disease occurred. The EU is already treated as a single entity when it comes to imports and it also needs to be treated as a single entity when it comes to exports. Moreover, we face 20% duties when we export to Mexico whilst the USA has zero duties. This must be dealt with. We also want to find a technical agreement with the Russian authorities on the EU’s export certificates and veterinary restrictions in order to allow a resumption in trade of EU fats and lard to the Russian Federation”.
“In addition, it will be important to reflect on innovative tools for the future which are tailor made for the sector. It will be important to determine the right tools for our sector like private storage aid schemes, insurance schemes, export credit assurance, rural development. I also want to strengthen producers’ and their cooperatives’ role in the food chain to ensure that they get a fair share of the retail price to enable them to be sustainable in the long term. Producers have also had to meet high animal welfare standards which imports to the EU do not have to meet and I want to see how they can be paid for this work by the market”.
Finally, we will steer talks on the new “EU Meat Market Observatory” and make sure there is more update to date information available so that farmers and their cooperatives can better understand market developments which is particularly important given the volatility on the market, he concluded.
Mr Tavares will be supported by two Vice-Chairman Margareta Åberg from Sweden and Miguel Higuera from Spain.
