Author: Merveille Ntabuhashe and Serafin Pazos-Vidal (AEIDL)
The European Commission’s annual EU Agri-food Days conference held from 10 to 12 December 2024, is the largest annual EU conference on agriculture, in its 2nd year int he presents format. The event was just about the first public engagement of new Agriculture and Rural Development Christophe Hansen brought together policymakers, industry leaders, farmers, and other stakeholders to address the challenges and opportunities the future of the EU’s agricultural sector.
EU Vision for the future of Agriculture
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen opened the conference by highlighting the vital role the agri-food sector plays in European culture and the economy. She took stock of the work done as part of the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of Agriculture, which recommendations led to the Commission’s new measures to strengthen farmers’ position in the sector, such as the Common Market Organisation Regulation (aiming for more transparency and predictability) and the Unfair Trading Practices Directive (to offer more protection to small farms and food companies in dealing with bigger operators). These measures focus on supporting farmers by reducing administrative burdens, ensuring they receive fair prices for their products, and attracting a new generation to the profession. Von der Leyen emphasised that the future prosperity of Europe is intrinsically linked to a thriving agri-food sector.
Additionally, Nadia Calviño, President of the European Investment Bank (EIB), announced €3 billion loan package dedicated to supporting agriculture and bioeconomy activities across Europe. This initiative prioritises young farmers, promotes gender equality in the sector, and incentivises environmentally friendly investments. Recognising the increasing vulnerability of farmers to extreme weather events, the EIB is also collaborating with the European Commission to develop innovative agricultural insurance and risk mitigation schemes.
Commissioner for Agriculture and Food, Christophe Hansen, presented a comprehensive vision for a competitive, resilient, and sustainable agricultural sector in his keynote address. He acknowledged the pressing challenges facing the industry, including geopolitical tensions, climate change, economic hurdles, and the structural changes of a declining number of farms and an aging farming population. Hansen stressed the urgent need to attract young people to the profession, pointing to the concerning statistic that only 12% of EU farmers are currently under the age of 40.
In addition to these core areas, Hansen highlighted the importance of simplifying regulations, ensuring that farmers are treated fairly within the food chain, and advocating for a level playing field in international trade. He reaffirmed the importance of a strong Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that provides stability, predictability, and delivers on its objectives. In March, after the first 100 days, the new Vision for EU Agriculture will be presented.
Moreover, the European Commission announced an amendment to the ‘de minimis’ Regulation for the agricultural sector. This regulation exempts small amounts of state aid from control, as they are deemed to have a negligible impact on competition and trade within the single market. This amendment, which will be in effect until 31 December 2032, aims to provide targeted support to farmers without distorting market dynamics.
EU Agricultural Outlook
During the second day of the event, the newly published EU Agricultural Outlook report was presented, which provides a medium-term outlook for EU agricultural markets up to 2035. The report predicts a slower growth rate for EU agricultural production, with the possibility of decline for some commodities by 2035. Several factors are identified as driving this trend, including the impact of climate change on natural resources, changing consumer preferences shifting towards poultry and plant-based proteins, and evolving consumption patterns for dairy products.
Despite the projected slowdown in production growth, the report anticipates that the EU will maintain its role as a net exporter for a range of agricultural products, ensuring food security within the EU and globally. The EU farming sector’s continued strength is deemed essential for maintaining self-sufficiency rates above 100% for key commodities
Stakeholders’ view on the Future of Agriculture
The event brought together policymakers, industry leaders, farmers, farmers’ representatives and other stakeholders to address the challenges and opportunities facing this sector. It was a pivotal platform for stakeholders to exchange ideas, tackle pressing challenges, and collaboratively design a forward-looking vision for EU agriculture.
Veronika Vrecionová, Chair of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, and István Nagy, Hungarian Minister of Agriculture, discussed their expectations the future vision for agriculture and food to be released in early 2025, highlighting in particular the need to deal with bureaucracy, support young, small and medium-sized farmers in order to deal with the generational change of young people limited opportunities in running successful agricultural businesses.
Under the topic Farming “Farming for the Future: Voices from the Field,” brought together a diverse group of farmers to share their real-world insights and strategies for navigating modern agriculture. The session was moderated by Anya Sitaram and featured a keynote speech by Magdalena Esterhammer, a dairy farmer, vegetable grower, and farmfluencer, just like Lidia Moroń-Morawska, a bee farmer and Vojtěch Válka, an organic winemaker. They shared their strategies for tackling present agricultural challenges and outlined their vision for the sector’s future. The issue of access to technology, capital, and fair incomes and generational renewal were once again this year key issues highlighted, as it is too early to assess the impact of the reform of the current CAP earlier in 2024 while at the same time geopolitical and trade issues keep emerging and thus making foresight challenging. This was followed by a Q&A session with key organisations such as Via Campesina, CEJA, IFOAM Organics Europe, BEUC and others.
In her keynote speech by Céline Bonnet, Research Director at Toulouse School of Economics and other speakers such as Michele Piergiovanni, Acting Director Markets and cases IV at DG AGRI Pierre Bascou, Director Markets also at DG AGRI explored how operators in the food chain have coped with surging input costs and food inflation, and discussed strategies for building a fair food chain.
The second day of the conference, in addition to discussing the findings of the latest Agricultural Outlook report also had a dedicated section about the critical link between Agriculture and Research. In the session “Squaring the Circle – Research and Innovation for a Competitive, Sustainable and Resilient Agriculture”, Diego Canga Fano, Acting Deputy Director-General in DG AGRI highlighted the Commission ongoing work in bridging the gap between research and practice, while simplifying administrative requirements, deploying innovative solutions for and by farmers as well as supporting knowledge sharing. This is best exemplified by a range of recent Horizon 2020 project such as TOMRES on sustainable crop management strategies NOMAD on using anaerobic digestion to avoid organic waste, EXCALIBUR on soil biodiversity, VIVALDI to prevent emissions from bio-based Industries and RUBIZMO on rural entrepreneurship, among others
Highlights from the EU Agri-Digital Conference 2024
The final day of the 2024 EU Agri-Digital Conference was the third and last of the annual EU Agrifood Days organised in Brussels on 12 December. Bringing together experts, policymakers, and practitioners to explore the latest advancements and challenges in agricultural digitalisation. Indeed, the Strategic Dialogue on the future of EU agriculture report tabled last September highlighted that digitalisation is one of the pressing challenges of the agricultural sector. The new Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Christophe Hansen, in his first attendance to this Conference, had previously reflected on the need to use the benefits of digital technology and tools to this end, while reducing the burden for smaller beneficiaries through simple schemes and closing the digital gap between younger and older farmers.
Salla Saastamoinen and Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle from DG AGRI discussed Artificial Intelligence’s potential to enhance productivity and sustainability. This was followed by discussions on the real-world hurdles of digitalisation, data sharing and interoperability. One of the issues that was consistently highlighted was the use of trust and significant variation that exists between countries and value chains. This has a direct effect on the degree and speed of digitalisation and data sharing, with a tendency towards more resistance and the higher need for detailed contractual arrangements where there is less of a pre-existing culture of trust.
Closing the EU Agri-Food Days
The conference concluded with closing remarks by Wolfgang Burtscher, Director-General of the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, European Commission. He reflected on the key takeaways from the event and emphasized the importance of continued collaboration and innovation in the agri-food sector, as the new Commission upon taking office on 2nd December is in full gear to table new “Vision for Agriculture and Food” during the first 100 days “to ensure long-term competitiveness and sustainability of our farming sector within the boundaries of our planet”, supported by the new European Board on Agriculture and Food that will also be launched.
Tools4CAP will align its upcoming activities with the new vision for agriculture and food, supporting Managing Authorities in achieving the ambitions of CAP Strategic Plans as the project enters its third year.