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The post-Brexit era opened in January with a slump in the agri-food trade of 11% compared to the same month last year, according to data released by the European Commission.
After a long period of continuous growth, the EU experienced a sharp fall in agri-food exports, mostly due to a €800-million contraction in the value of products sold to the UK, according to the Commission’s monthly trade report released on Thursday (6 May).
Year-on-year, the EU’s agri-food exports fell by 24% in January and by 32% compared with the previous month of December.
The value of imports from the UK also plummeted by 67%, with a loss of €874 million, with the decline in the volume of trade felt across all categories of agri-food products.
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Access to water is a big issue for Australian livestock production, with prolonged droughts a regular feature.
Further evidence of inherent hostility within the EU commission towards EU beef production can be found in the disproportionate allocation of promotional funds to organically produced produce.
This is highlighted by Farm Europe, a Brussels-based think tank on the performance of the EU rural economy.
EU promotion funding for organic
The think tank challenges the fact that half the EU promotional funding is allocated to Farm to Fork projects, with a particular focus on organic produce, despite the fact it represents just 10% of EU farm output value. Farm Europe also highlight that this special focus on organic is discriminatory against mainstream EU production, which is the majority output from EU farms. Its final grievance with the promotion policy is that it jumps the gun in earmarking funding support for the Farm