The move came as Copa and Cogeca discussed the situation in a high-level meeting with the EU Commission.
Speaking at a press event, Copa President Martin Merrild said “One of the biggest challenges and disappointments that I have had as President of Copa over the past two years is the Russian ban on our agricultural exports. Before the ban, everyone was encouraging us to produce more to meet upcoming demand. But for political reasons, a ban was imposed and we lost our main export market overnight. Many farmers went out of business as prices fell so quickly over such a short period of time”.
“We are happy to meet the dual challenge of tackling climate change and meeting upcoming demand in a sustainable way and we support a more market orientated approach, but politicians cannot leave us out in the cold like that.”, Merrild warned.
“The exit of the UK from the EU is a huge disappointment for us too. It is still difficult to believe that the UK people decided to exit the EU. The impact is especially hard on Ireland who exports around 40% of its agri-food exports to the UK worth 4.13 billion euros. My wish is to find a positive solution so that Britain can still be part of the Single Market and that a way is found to do trade with the UK, also for the benefit of UK farmers who export a lot to the EU and meet our standards”, he added.
“Any trade deal between the EU and the Latin American Trade Bloc Mercosur must be fair and balanced too. We cannot accept double standards. There will never be fair competition between the EU and Latin America as they do not produce under the same conditions or meet the same standards. Imports to the EU must meet the same level of safety controls”, he stressed.
