Agro-food cooperatives ask the European Commission for a shock plan to maintain rice cultivation

Published 2024년 6월 24일

Tridge summary

The Civil Dialogue Group, during its June 21st meeting, saw Antonio Catón, director of the Herbaceous Crops department of Agri-Food Cooperatives of Spain, appealing to the European Commission for a plan to address the challenges confronting the EU rice industry. The challenges include legislative disparities on active ingredients, competition from third countries, and environmental issues like drought, which have led to a 24% decrease in the EU rice cultivation area since 2011/2012. Catón highlighted the need for mandatory labeling of rice origin to ensure consumer transparency and proposed the implementation of an automatic safeguard clause in the Generalized Preferences system to safeguard the European sector from excessive imports. He called for EU rice-producing countries to unite and advocate for their common interests, emphasizing the economic and environmental significance of the rice sector in the EU.

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Original content

During the meeting of the Civil Dialogue Group held on June 21, Antonio Catón, director of the Herbaceous Crops department of Agri-Food Cooperatives of Spain, asked the European Commission for a shock plan for rice to address the main challenges facing the crop faces, such as the lack of legislation on active ingredients that is the same for all European producers and competition from third countries. The EU consumes more rice than it produces (1.32 Mt of white rice produced, compared to internal consumption of 2.4 Mt) which makes us net importers. Despite this situation, "rice in the EU is in a situation of vulnerability and uncertainty due to the lack of necessary tools, which makes European rice less competitive with imports from third countries, which also cultivate with environmental and social standards different from European ones," lament Cooperatives. All these circumstances, together with the drought that has occurred in recent years, as highlighted by Antonio Catón, ...

Source: Agroinformacion