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The stakeholders acknowledge the crisis the EU pigmeat sector has been suffering over the past three years. The main factor endangering the viability of the sector is the high price of feed as a consequence of the extreme volatility of the price of feed raw materials. We consider that this extreme volatility will continue in the future. For this reason we call for both short term and long term set of measures.
The stakeholders of the pigmeat advisory group urge the Commission to take action on the
following:
1. Reduction in the production costs whose major factor is the animal feed price. To
achieve a reduction, we recommend:
2. Competitiveness of pig meat on the international market.
3. Functioning of the Common Market Organisation (CMO).
4. Functioning of the food chain.
During the meetings of the Enlarged Advisory Group, reference was recurrently made to the
imbalance of the power relationships to the benefit of the large-scale retail sector. This imbalance prevents that a variation in production costs is fully reflected in the final price. The Commission should allow pigmeat producers to group together into producer organisations.
They should also be allowed to form inter-branch organisations on a voluntary basis.
The stakeholders call for increasing transparency along the pigmeat chain and in particular
for the ban of unfair commercial practices. The European Commission and the Members States shall take action in order to prevent large retail companies from abusing their dominant position.
http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/11/st10/st10022.en11.pdf
