Agriculture: Short-term outlook report shows strain on various EU agri-food sectors

Today, the Commission has published the latest short-term outlook report for EU agricultural markets. This regular publication presents a general and sector-by-sector overview of the latest tendencies and further prospects for agri-food markets. The report concludes that Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine has significantly disturbed global agricultural markets. This has created more uncertainty regarding the future availability of grains and oilseeds, and has added a layer of instability to already tense markets. The EU is largely self-sufficient for food, with a massive agri-food trade surplus, and the EU single market can once again be expected to prove its ability to absorb shocks. Proposed measures to increase the EU’s arable crops production will allow farmers to increase their sowing area for maize, sunflowers and protein crops. As a result, the 2022 EU harvest may be a very good one for cereals and for oilseeds, provided normal weather conditions prevail. EU cereal production is projected to reach 297.7 million tonnes for the 2022 harvest. Nevertheless, there are some concerns around affordability due to high market prices and inflationary trends. For example, rising inflation and input costs are likely to place more pressure on consumer prices for dairy products. While cheese and butter consumption may still increase slightly, the use of milk powders in processing is expected to decline. For full details concerning specific markets, see the news item and the report available online.