Cereal import duties suspended to ease feed prices
EU - The EU Commission has announced plans to suspend import duties on all cereals except oats, to help ease the pressure on grain markets and so reduce feed costs.
28 November 2007
2 minute read
Announcing the move, commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said export refunds were now needed to respond to the difficult market situation becasue the private storage measure have not been sufficient to remedy the difficulties faced by European pig producers.
While the private storage aid scheme for pigs had temporarily taken 85,000t of pigmeat off the market in Europe and helped stabilise prices, margins over feed costs were still up to 70 per cent down on 2002-2006 levels. ""The private storage measure appears insufficient to remedy the difficulties faced by European pig producers."
The sharp drop in the value of the US dollar had also marred EU competitiveness in the export market against US, Canadian and Brazilian suppliers.
