The inaugural meeting of the Observatory was opened by Janusz Wojciechowski, EU Commissioner for Agriculture, recalling the group's goals and future work. The main tasks of the observatory include exchanging information and summarizing the situation in the food supply chain, and in the medium term, developing methods for assessing and monitoring the cost structure and the distribution of margins and added value throughout the chain. During this first meeting, an initial summary of available data on prices, costs and added value was presented and members held a first exchange of views on the situation in the agri-food supply chain in the EU and in their country.
– In recent months, farmers across Europe have expressed a number of concerns about the challenges they face. One of the main issues that emerged was the sense of dissatisfaction with the functioning of the food supply chain expressed by farmers who believe that their work is not sufficiently rewarded. It is this lack of trust and confidence that the Commission wants to address by establishing an EU agri-food chain observatory. With this new observatory, we bring operators from across the supply chain around the same table, together with the Commission and public authorities. Our goal is to exchange reliable information in a trustworthy manner; providing greater transparency on costs and margins; and sharing expertise, identifying commercial practices and contractual arrangements that may have a positive or negative impact on the functioning of the chain. Ultimately, the Observatory will strive to strengthen trust throughout the supply chain, and thus contribute to our overall goal: that every entity – from farm to fork – is fairly rewarded for their work, said Commissioner Wojciechowski.
The Observatory's members include representatives of national authorities from 27 EU countries and 48 stakeholder organizations operating in the agri-food supply chain. These include farmers, input suppliers, the food industry, traders, transport, logistics, retail and consumers. The European Parliament, the Committee of the Regions and the European Economic and Social Committee have observer status. The list of AFCO members and observers is available in the Commission's register of expert groups.
The second plenary session will be held this fall.
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Completely new payments in the future CAP?
Context
Strengthening the position of farmers in the food supply chain is one of the key objectives of the common agricultural policy. A number of measures have already been introduced at EU level to ensure greater fairness and protect farmers against unfair trading practices. These include the Unfair Trading Practices Directive, which protects farmers and smaller suppliers against 16 unfair trading practices in the food chain, and provisions in the Common Organization of the Markets in Agricultural Products Regulation that support farmers' cooperation and allow certain exemptions from established competition rules.
Over the last few years, sharp increases in input costs combined with high inflation have further destabilized the distribution of value added throughout the chain and significantly increased the perceived degree of uncertainty in which EU farmers operate. The level of trust and cooperation between actors in the food supply chain needs to be increased. In March 2024, the Commission announced a series of short and medium-term measures to achieve this goal. The creation of the Observatory was an immediate result. By bringing together representatives of all sectors and representatives of Member States, it aims to build trust and establish a common diagnosis of the current situation along the entire chain.
Source: EC statement
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Higher third party liability insurance for farmers. The decision was made
