EURO BRIEFS
EURO BRIEFS
• IRISH sugar beet growers have suspended deliveries to Greencores factories in the Republic in protest at the companys refusal to increase prices. The dispute has been running for 10 months, with farmers complaining of rising costs and the processor claiming it cannot compete with UK and French sugar firms.
• THE Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation has called for a new global strategy to control the spread of foot-and-mouth disease. Noting that seven of the 11 F&M outbreaks in Europe during the 1990s were due to illegal meat imports, the FAO says developed countries should do more to attack the disease "at source" in developing countries.
• CENTRAL and eastern European countries joining the EU in the next few years should not get the same direct income aids as western farmers, according to a new study for the commission. Such aids would simply preserve peasant-style agriculture. The priority should be to restructure their farm sectors, so everyone can be paid the same in the medium term. *