Christine Lambert, president of Copa has made clear that across Europe, agricultural production is down, while farmers are being hit with the triple whammy of drought, disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine and Green Deal regulations.
“I think we’re going through historical change,” said Ramón Armengol, president of Cogeca. “We’re seeing the first effects of the war and climate change.” Armengol said that recent drops in prices on fertiliser and energy are giving farmers greater margins, but overall, European agriculture production is down, particularly fruit, vegetables, beef and lamb, a drop caused by high production costs and low prices.
Last year, 46% of the EU was affected by drought. The prospect of drought drying up most of the harvest on the Iberian Peninsula looms large this year also, as the persistent lack of rain is predicted to take 50% to 80% of the harvest.
Armengol and Lambert were critical of the European Commission’s slow response to the situation with Ukrainian products getting stockpiled just this side of the Ukrainian border and depressing prices for eastern European farms, which they said they had been sounding the alarm on since last year.
Source: europeanconservative.com