New Agriculture Minister Michael Creed made his Council of Ministers debut this week with a list of requests.

The appetite for delivering further farmer supports following the emergency dairy and pig fund earlier this year appears limited. EU Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan knocked back the suggestion that there would be further funding for farmers.

There was acceptance of the ongoing difficulties in dairy and a welcome recognition of some positive upward movement in pig prices, driven by strong sales performance to China and Japan in particular.

Reports that EU stockpiles have been largely cleared will be welcome in the pigmeat sector and removes the downside of a private-aid storage scheme, which often postpones a problem rather than solving it.

With 60% of stock out of storage by the end of last month and further recent movements, a stock overhang should not be an issue.

Trade discussions

After getting beef off the menu as he described, Commissioner Hogan this week challenged the trade discussions with the US in TTIP.

He blamed the US for lack of movement in the trade talks, noting it had accepted few of Europe’s demands on cutting non-tariff barriers and hadn’t shown any concessions on geographical indications (GIs) according to Agra Facts, a Brussels-based trade publication.