EU-wide drought causing issues

Drought is causing problems for farmers across Europe, with some EU member states calling for support. French MEP Michel Dantin has written to the European Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan twice, calling on him to do more to help farmers affected. He described the situation as “urgent”.

AGRA Facts reported that Dantin suggested a derogation from greening requirements for French farmers and measures to manage the meat market.

He said that failure to be flexible about environmental measures would put their legitimacy in question.

Nordic and Baltic countries are also suffering. The Danish and Swedish farm organisations wrote an op-ed in a number of media outlets, expressing fears over declining farm incomes and increased urbanisation as a result.

While acknowledging that farming must be able to adapt to weather changes, they insist that this year it has exceeded any farmer’s reasonable expectations for what was to come.

Catch crop funding

Irish Arable farmers will receive funding to grow catch crops for the livestock sector.

A total of £2.45m will be paid to farmers under the Fodder Production Incentive. The aim is to get the amount of catch crops grown on stubble ground to double to 50,000ha, to take the pressure off livestock farmers where a forage deficit has been identified throughout the country.

Arable farmers will receive £90/ha to grow grass crops, while they can receive £138/ha to grow forage crops. The plot must have been used for a tillage crop in 2018 and the catch crop must be ploughed up next year.

Beef imports grow

Japan imports the third largest amount of beef in the world, while South Korea has the highest per capita consumption of beef in Asia.

According to figures from AHDB, during the first six months of the year Japan imported over 280,000t of beef, up 4,300t (+1.5%) compared with the same period in 2017.

Australia is the main provider of beef to Japan supplying over 50% of its imports.

At the same time, South Korean beef imports have also increased this year. They were up 9% year-on-year in the period January to June to total 217,000t.

The US and Australia are the main providers of beef here, accounting for 90% of the import market.

Elsewhere, Dutch beef imports have also risen by 12% for the first four months of the year to 138,000t, an increase of 14,500t.

65% surge in African swine fever in Europe

The number of cases of African Swine Fever (ASF) has reached 750 (domestic pigs only) in Europe this year, already surpassing 2017 levels by 65%.

Romania is battling an ongoing problem with the virus, with an outbreak on one farm which contained 43,800 pigs.

It was later found that pigmeat from the farm had been exported to the UK, Spain and Italy, where it was subsequently traced and destroyed.

Affected countries in Europe include, Romania, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Hungary. The UK Government has reminded pig keepers they must not feed kitchen or catering waste to their pigs to help prevent the spread of African swine fever to the UK.