IN FACE OF THE CUTS THAT COMMUNITY AID WILL SUFFER TO COMMUNITY AGRICULTURAL POLICY.

The Director General of Agriculture of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Silva, has stated that producers must bet on “organize better” and innovate in the face of budget perspectives “more modest” for agricultural aid.



Silva stated in a conference on the Common Agricultural Policy (PAC), that this sector must have “mechanisms” to manage and cope with pressures in the markets such as, for example, price volatility or relationships in the food chain (with industry or distribution).

In addition, Silva has pointed out that, Although public aid is important, the “force” of farmers must also be in their “stake” in the value generated by agricultural products, and for this, better organization or concentration is convenient.

The day “The CAP on the horizon 2020; how to face the challenges of the agri-food sector” has been convened by Agro-food Cooperatives, just over a week before the heads of state and the European Union meet (EU) to negotiate the next budget between 2014-2020.

The president of Agro-food Cooperatives, Fernando Marcén, stressed the “growing concern” by the latest documents circulating for that negotiation, since they point to a greater budget reduction.

In this sense, Silva has indicated that now one cannot speculate on the outcome of that discussion and that the EC “wait” and “trust” in which the amount that is finally allocated to agriculture is close to that proposed by Brussels.

If the budget decrease percentage is very large, then you would have to “adjust” some elements of the CAP reform, has added.

As for the “tools” market, The general director has indicated that it is difficult to think that reference prices or aid for these purposes will be increased in the future., so the sector must stop employing “measures of the past” and bet on others such as mutual funds or insurance, and in this last case, has highlighted, Spain is an advanced country.