The President of ICMSA, Denis Drennan, said that Ursula von der Leyen’s remarks in which she referenced “a new European strategy for our agriculture and food sector” could not be taken seriously until such point as the Commission finally chooses to either fundamentally reform margins in the food supply chain or increase direct supports to farmers without attaching expensive environmental conditions. The Commission was guilty of “disabling political cowardice”.

Uniterre has sharply criticized the butter imports of recent years. And rightly so! It is unacceptable for milk producers to have to carry the burden of poor management by the Interbranch Organisation Milk (BO Milch or IP Lait) with a reduction in the price for milk and an increase in the share of B-milk, as explained by Stefan Kohler (BO Milch).

The two-day German Raiffeisen Day 2024 held in Berlin in mid-June saw detailed discussions about the future prospects for Germany and for the agricultural sector, with contributions among others from the leader of the Christian Democrats (CDU), Friedrich Merz, focusing on the thesis that the “culture of cooperation between business and politics doesn’t work (anymore)”.

How ironic, when you think that it is the association of “cooperatives” that is turning all the wheels to strengthen the interests of big business, while forgetting farmers in the process. “All power to the farmers” was once the founding idea of Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen (1818-1888), the father of the cooperative concept, whose ideas and ideals are taken ad absurdum today by his own association. We took a figurative approach to expressing this problematical reality in Berlin on the Spree river and on land.

Postcard campaign on Article 148 CMO

“I’m going to make a nuisance until things change!” This was the exalted claim of the German liberal party (FDP) for the European elections. Given the dismissive attitude of the FDP towards implementing Article 148 CMO in Germany, this was reason enough for us to change the campaign slogan into “Hello FDP! We’re going to make a nuisance until things change”. This was combined with the appeal to come out in favour of Article 148 and grant us the possibility of contracts being concluded prior to milk deliveries – all printed on a charming postcard. The postcard was then sent to all FDP politicians responsible for agriculture on the federal and state level throughout Germany.

German government adopts agricultural package

The three parties in the German coalition government have reached agreement on an agricultural package to give farmers more planning security and to relieve the pressure on farms. Tax burdens on farmers are to be reduced by smoothing out the tariffs. Similarly, changes are to be introduced to the conditionalities and eco-schemes in the Common Agricultural Policy. More effective measures should be taken against unfair trading practices to strengthen the position of farmers in the supply chain. Smoothing out the tariffs should help to compensate for varying taxation burdens in the two three-year periods (2023-25 and 2026-28). The volume is estimated at around 50 million euros per annum.

The CAP conditionalities are being defused. In future, checks and sanctions will only be planned for farms with more than 10 hectares of agricultural land. Similarly, the obligation to keep 4% of arable land as non-productive area is waived. With regard to “unfair trading practices”, it is forbidden to soften up unfair trading practices on the black list. Furthermore, the time limits will be eliminated from the rules also for suppliers in the “dairy” product group with turnover of up to 4 billion euros. The agricultural package was adopted by the lower house of the German Parliament (Bundestag) in early July and will go through the upper house (Bundesrat) in late September. Consultations on other important topics will continue after the summer recess, for which proposals are expected from the ZKL (Commission on the Future of Agriculture).

Bundesverband Deutscher Milchviehhalter e.V. (BDM)