CAP proposals cause consternation

Responding to the publication of the European Commission’s formal proposals for the reform of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP), Dairy UK policy director Peter Dawson says: “The dairy industry is operating in a fiercely competitive and increasingly globalised market place. Our belief is that the CAP should help the UK dairy industry improve its competitiveness, deliver a profitable living for everybody in the supply chain, and enable the dairy sector to expand and realise its potential. We’re concerned that we don’t see anything in these proposals that explicitly addresses the need for improving competitiveness.”
“On the contrary, they seem to introduce potential threats. These include the competitive distortions that could be created by the different implementation of the direct payment options being offered to Member States, discrimination against competitive UK farmers resulting from capping payments and perhaps most significantly, the as yet uncertain implications for production efficiency resulting from greening measures.
“At the same time, there is almost a complete absence of positive measures that could be used to drive competitiveness forwards. The package gives the impression that the Commission just isn’t giving enough attention to the issue of food security and all that it implies.”
Kirsten Holm Svendsen, dairy policy director for the Danish Dairy Board, was similarly unimpressed: “The Danish Dairy Board would like to draw attention to one element, which is especially worrying – the introduction of a national flat rate in each member state leading to a national redistribution of the single farm payment.” The flat rate does not allow “a responsible re-capitalization of the agricultural support in the dairy sector,” Svendson says. “It is hard to understand the Commission’s strategy.”