The European Commission has launched an EU plan with several aid measures to safeguard #food #security against the impact of russia’s war against Ukraine. The EU will provide €500 million to the bloc’s most affected farming sectors by triggering a crisis reserve under the Common Agricultural Policy (#CAP) that has never been used before. EU member states can top-up this funding to a potential total of €1.5 billion and will be able to use these funds to help their farmers cope with market disturbances, higher inputs costs (energy and fertilizers) and trade restrictions caused by the war.
▪ The package will also see the introduction of private storage aid for pig meat (so-called market intervention) to ease to European pork sector’s economic troubles. Flexibilities will also be introduced to existing import requirements for animal feed to alleviate the pressure on livestock producers, while the EU’s state aid rules will be relaxed for the agriculture and fertilizer sectors to allow up to €5,000 in aid to be distributed to individual farmers.
▪ Apart from food aid, the EU promised to help Ukraine’s planting and growing of cereals and oilseeds to ensure their own food needs as well as to facilitate their exports. This will be done through an EU Emergency Support Programme of €330 million that will secure access to basic goods and services in Ukraine and protect the local population. Another important goal will be to reconstruct civilian small-scale infrastructure, strategic planning as well as ensuring energy security.
🔸 The sudden shuttering of trade from Ukraine exposed just how much the EU relies on imports of corn to feed European animals, while the war has revealed the extent to which the bloc depends on fertilizer from russia and Belarus. That has reignited a push for greater “food sovereignty” — the notion that the EU should be more self-sufficient.
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