BRITISH AND European farmers have good opportunities to succeed
in the global market-place, despite the gradual erosion of taxpayer
support and the emergence of Brazil as a big commodity
producer.
"Europe has many advantages," director of agriculture at the
OECD Stefan Tangerman told the Agra-Europe conference. "It has
among the best climates in the world, the best soils and
well-educated farmers. They are close to large markets, with good
infrastructure and highly efficient food industries."
Prof Tangerman admitted there were also constraints, most
notably the cost of land. "High land prices don"t fall from
heaven," he said. "They are the result of support given to farmers
which is capitalised in land prices."
ENTITLEMENTS
The recent CAP reforms would not change this, as entitlements
were linked to land.
The small scale of much EU farming also undermined
competitiveness, so rural development policies were needed to speed
adjustment.
But Prof Tangerman played down the importance of higher
production standards in the EU, noting that there were greater
differences in production costs within countries than between
countries. "Farmers the world over complain about the effect of
government interference on their costs, but it tends to be
exaggerated," he told the conference.
He also dismissed the claim that labour rates were much higher
in Europe, pointing to the good wages made by workers in New
Zealand, Australia and the USA.