Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-09-06-Speech-1-068"
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"en.20100906.17.1-068"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the initiative for this report came from the Commission’s Communication concerning the considerable problems that exist within the food supply chain in Europe. Those active in the agricultural sector are particularly disadvantaged. These alarming problems are reflected in the dramatic price fluctuations that have been seen for primary produce in the farming sector.
The economic crisis has not spared farms. In some cases, farm revenues have declined by up to 28%. Production costs are at their highest for fifteen years. In some countries, farmers are already having great difficulty obtaining credit. The Commission has established that some actors at the top end of the food supply chain are abusing their dominant standing in the market on the basis of their monopolistic position. In the practices that this involves – including high listing fees for products, a lack of transparent pricing and poor bargaining power – it is always the farmers that lose out.
The largest profit margins are clearly being made by processors, wholesalers and retailers. In some cases, farmers face prices that are below production cost. We cannot allow the burden of liquidity problems to be pushed onto farmers’ shoulders as a result of actors further up the chain taking months to pay them. We cannot have retailers treating farms as banks.
One of the core points of this report is the specification of payment periods. Commissioner, you have initiated the negotiation process for the common agricultural policy after 2013. There is some uncertainty in the sector as to the direction that European agricultural policy will take – what type of agricultural production will be wanted in Europe in the future: will it be just intensive, industrialised agricultural production, or will it be diverse, sustainable and, above all, comprehensive agriculture?
In the coming months, we will reach a crossroads. We urge Parliament to demonstrate a commitment to diversity and to securing the food supply in Europe. Questions such as ‘What will we eat in the future?’, ‘Where will we live?’ and ‘How will we heat our homes?’ are more relevant than ever. The answers lie in agriculture, because agriculture’s functions include more than just producing quality produce. Our communities expect politicians to take the right action to secure sustainable production in Europe."@en1
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