Fischer Boel defends food prices at Berlin Green Week
Recent rises in the price of food should serve as a sharp reminder that consumers cannot take their daily bread for granted and, even in a “modern” society, farmers are indispensable, EU agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel told over 5000 industry stakeholders at this week’s Berlin Green Week.
“The increase in agricultural raw material prices started from a historically low level,” she said. So it cannot be claimed that current profit levels are enormous, but at most they have reached a normal level.”
For example, 25 years ago 1kg of butter cost €4.5 (£3.40). Today the same kilo still costs less, at €4.1 (£3.10).
The price at the farmgate was also far from the only factor behind the rise in world food prices, she added.
“In some cases, such a bread, the price of the agricultural raw material makes up only about 4% of the value of the product and therefore could not account for the 15% rise in the price of bread,” said Mrs Fischer Boel.
EU Commission
But the buoyant state of the agricultural markets did provide an opportunity for the EU Commission to make changes to some of the traditional support tools, such as intervention, turning it into a genuine safety net.
These views were echoed by German farmers union leader Gerd Sonnleitner, who said the industry was facing long term shifts in the marketplace, with demand for food rising faster than supply and reserves severely depleted.
“We have suffered the effects of falling prices and values for many years, but now the tide has turned,” he said.
“I am convinced that the vast majority of consumers are prepared to pay an appropriate price in order to obtain good, safe foodstuffs.”
Mr Sonnleitner stressed that, despite the importance of biofuels and renewable energy, agriculture’s main role would remain the production of high quality food.
“In the long term, agricultural policy based on the world market, and bioenergy focussed on the domestic market are incompatible, which is why we need reliable support for bioenergy,” he said.
* Referring to this year’s “health check” of the CAP, Mr Sonnleitner said that German farmers would oppose any attempt to increase compulsory modulation and would not accept any ceilings, especially since firm markets had meant the CAP was already underspent.