EU publishes short-term agriculture outlook

The European Union's most recent short-term economic outlook identifies good production prospects across multiple agriculture sectors, with huge boost coming from reopening food service businesses. Many uncertainties remain around the scale of the impact of the coronavirus crisis and the economic recovery. Nonetheless the food supply chain has proven resilient throughout the crisis. With lockdown measures being progressively lifted all over Europe, demand in particular for restaurants, bars and cafés should pick up, although not back to 2019 levels in the short run due to reduced households’ purchasing power. Prices are also picking up as a consequence. As noted in the spring edition of this short-term outlook, the COVID-19 outbreak and related measures taken by Member States created a demand shock rather than a supply one. This is reflected in the good production prospects for various sectors such as dairy, sugar, pigmeat, olive oil, wine and tomato. Exports perspectives remain ...