Greater international co-ordination in reducing the amount of
illegally declared foods entering and exiting the EU's borders
could be the result of a meeting held yesterday by the bloc's
anti-fraud office.
The EC has approved measures designed to promote food products in
countries outside the EU in order to counter growing concern over
global competition.
Avian influenza continues to spread in the EU's largest poultry
producer, with the country's agriculture ministry reporting over
the weekend that the highly pathogenic type H5N1 had been detected
in a dead wild swan in the...
The EU's poultry association has joined in the criticism of the
European Commission for approving the vaccination of poultry flocks
in the Netherlands and France.
The EU's controversal approval of decisions by France and the
Netherlands' to start vaccinating their poultry highlights the
fault lines in the bloc's response to avian influenza.
The EU's food safety regulator has published an action plan to
prevent foot-and-mouth (FMD) disease from entering the bloc again,
calling for more controls on the import of animals, meat and meat
products.
The EU has attacked the US for 'seriously twisting the truth about
the value of the European Unions agricultural market access offer
in the Doha Round'.
Südzucker is confident that the revised EU sugar reform offers
efficient producers long-term planning certainty, though it
predicts a fall in next year's income.
The first agriculture and fisheries council meeting under the
Austrian presidency of the EU, held today in Brussels, will set the
agenda for food industry reform in 2006.
The removal of a food product in the UK due to the presence of an
undeclared irradiated ingredient highlights the complicated legal
status of this technology within the EU.
The CIAA has urged the new EU presidency to push ahead with the
liberalisation of the global food trade in order to open new
markets and tackle the slowdown in productivity growth.
A general increase in reported cases of campylobacteriosis over the
last few years in the EU's fifteen original member states indicates
that food companies need to step up their safety procedures against
the disease.
If the EU keeps hiding its agriculture sector behind huge pay
cheques instead of devoting more time to food research funding, the
bloc's whimpering and wailing will only get worse.
The resumption of trade negotiations between the EU and
Mediterranean countries is vital for the expansion of lucrative new
markets, according to the CIAA.
Four key factors will determine whether this week's EU discussions
regarding the sugar regime have been a success or a failure, says a
key industry body.
The UK department for environment, food and rural affairs (Defra)
claims that there is strong support for EU sugar reform, though
opinion across Europe remains divided.
An ambitious Italian gourmet food promotion programme could
transform the fortunes of a revitalised sector - as long as EU
bureaucracy doesn't ruin everything.
A European Commission programme designed to promote EU food
products outside the bloc has been welcomed by the food industry,
though criticism over European bureaucracy remains a recurrent
theme.
Europe's food industry will significantly benefit from a
satisfactory WTO agreement, but for this to happen the EU must
maintain its multilateral approach and issues such as export
support must be addressed.
A new centre-right government in Poland is unlikely to curb the
country's strong opposition to EU sugar reforms as Commission
representatives look for common ground to break the 'no' camp.
The EU today submitted a new lower tariff of €187 per tonne for
bananaimports, after its previous proposals on opening up the
bloc's market wererejected by the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
The EU provides the largest amount of trade-distorting support to
farmersas measured by dollar value, with the US a distant second
and Japan adistant third, according to a report this month bythe US
government's Congressional...
The WTO has declined to endorse the EU's tariff level of 230
EUR/tonne for banana imports, forcing the Commission to initiate a
new consultation process, writes Anthony Fletcher.
Whether it is a pork pie from Melton Mowbray or olive oil from
Nimes, every Tom, Denis and Haemon seems to believe their local
food deserves the EU's protection from big, bad corporations.
Global supplies for the hydrocolloid gum arabic could creep up as
Lagos announces plans to sow 500 million seeds to produce the
popular confectionery ingredient, writes Lindsey Partos.
The first wrangling over EU sugar reform proposals by agriculture
ministers saw protests and a passionate debate in Brussels
yesterday, but the opposition looks increasingly isolated,
reports Chris Mercer.
Overall there is no difference in health risks to consumers between
farmed and wild salmon according to scientists at the European food
safety regulator.
Milk prices paid to UK producers are notoriously low, yet tough
streamlining has positioned the dairy industry well to cope with
new EU CAP reforms and subsidy cuts that seem increasingly likely,
writes Chris Mercer.
While the European Commission still seems far from producing a
proposal to amend rules on nutrition labelling, a new study
suggests costs of label changes for the food maker could hit €9000
a product, reports Lindsey Partos.
The EU's Sugar Management Committee has backed a new regulation
demanding that five of the new member states destroy their surplus
sugar stocks or face fines, reports Chris Mercer.
The minimum age when the EU's butchers must remove the brain and
spinal cord from cattle could be raised to 21 months from the
current 12 months if the European Commission accepts a
recommendation from the bloc's food safety...
The EU's restrictive position on biotechnology food products is
closely connected to domestic political reversal in key countries
such as France and the UK and concerns over the power of
multinationals and globalisation, according...
The EU's wine-producing countries, including Hungary and Slovenia,
this week torpedoed discussions to raise the minimum excise duty on
all alcoholic drinks, fearing a domestic backlash from vintners,
reports Chris Mercer.
Knocked by an economic slowdown and the strength of the Euro
against the US dollar, growth in turnover for the European food and
drink industry rose by a 1.9 per cent wisp from 2002 to 2003,
concludes a new report from the US government,...
A bumper harvest across Eastern Europe has forced the European
Commission to intervene, buying up and moving large amounts of
surplus stocks to prevent Europe-wide market disturbance,
reports Chris Mercer.
The latest figures on research and development (R&D)
expenditure from Europe's statistic's gathering body Eurostat show
that overall investment is now nudging the two per cent mark.
Romania and Bulgaria are set to sign EU membership treaties within
the next two months while Ukraine steps ever closer to the bloc,
offering hope to food producers and retailers seeking new,
potentially lucrative markets. But quality...
