British farmers are among more than 6,000 from across Europe to have descended on Brussels today to protest against poor returns for their produce.
Representatives from the UK main farming unions marched with their Continental colleagues to demand solutions from European agriculture ministers - who are meeting today at the European Commission - to the crisis enveloping the sector.
They are calling on the European Commission to implement 10 key measures to help farmers better withstand market volatility, which has become particularly pronounced since the Russian trade embargo was introduced last year, including simplifying administration over Common Agriculture Policy payments, a review of European intervention prices, a strengthening of country of origin labelling, and increased funding for the promotion of food products.
“We need the European Commission to implement measures to ease cashflow difficulties and strengthen safety nets,” said NFU president Meurig Raymond. “We need a long-term approach in the food supply chain. In dairy this means contracts that allow farmers to plan for the future and lock in a milk price reflective of the cost of production,” he added.
Ahead of the meeting, environment secretary Liz Truss said the government was looking to implement a range of initiatives to improve stability for food producers, such as a commitment to publish details of central government catering contracts, and better promotion and labelling of British produce.
Truss also planned to call for the development of a dairy futures market at the meeting.
“I recognise the seriousness of the current situation for our hardworking farmers and I will be pushing the EU Commission for urgent action to help them through this turbulent time,” she said.
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