The Russian-Ukrainian crisis continues to have a strong impact on agricultural markets. Trapped between soaring production costs and declining consumer purchasing power, European livestock farmers and animal feed producers face difficulties to plan ahead.
Prolonged animal disease outbreaks and the increase in grain prices caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine are expected to reduce demand for animal feed in the EU.
High temperatures and drought have had a severe impact on pastures, forage and cereal crops, further threatening the European animal sector.
All of these factors have driven up prices for EU animal products. However, the risk of decapitalization in the face of production and feed costs is leading to a risk of reversal of trends in meat prices
Due to the Russian-Ukrainian crisis and the lack of vegetable protein, organic chicken and pig farmers will be able to use non-organic protein feed thanks to a temporary derogation adopted at EU level.
The first European Parliament debate on synthetic meat was held in mid-July. The EU has been called upon – by representatives of synthetic meat sector – to invest more in public R&D on these products.
Five EU countries are calling for a review of the current animal transport legislation dating back to 2005.
A climate scientist proposes changes in the calculation of GHG emissions from the livestock sector, as conventional calculations could be misleading when applied to methane emissions, especially when it comes to emission reductions.
The environment ministers of the Member States have supported the European Commission’s proposal for a regulation on deforestation-free supply chains. Beef and soy, as well as other products, would no longer be imported into the EU if their production caused deforestation.
A survey reveals that 70% of Welsh farmers intend to reduce production next year due to rising costs and other factors (insufficient market returns, impact of government regulations, etc….). More than half of cattle farmers may reduce it during the year, with an average reduction in cattle numbers estimated at -10%.
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O artigo foi publicado originalmente em Farm Europe.