Huge amounts of intervention beef will be stockpiled within a few years, the Agriculture Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, warned in Brussels yesterday. Because of BSE, there are 600,000 tonnes of unwanted beef in EU cold stores already, the equivalent of two million animals, he said, and warned of new food mountains if Common Agricultural Policy reform did not take place before the next world trade agreement in 2000.
"The current stocks can be sold but there will be no possibility of selling them after the new world trade agreement is reached," he said. And he predicted that there could be 1.5 million tonnes of beef in Europe's cold stores by 2006, without any market for it.
He was speaking to Irish journalists before a European tour to promote his new CAP reform package, which involves cuts of 30 per cent in beef supports, 20 per cent in cereals and 10 per cent in milk.
The Commissioner will be in Dublin next month to try and sell the package, which is being opposed by many farming groups throughout the EU. He predicted that the new levels of production would cut prices for consumers.
He said CAP reform was necessary because the next world trade agreement will involve cutting export subsidies and this would mean a more difficult international trading situation for Europe's producers. Reform was necessary internally to get the markets balanced for the new situation. Mr Fischler indicated that in the reformed CAP many payments made to farmers could be conditional on their environmental awareness and protection of the landscape.
Officials in Brussels have been indicating a need to switch some of the supports from mainline farming activities to rural development.
Mr Fischler confirmed yesterday that the union intended to appeal a GATT decision that Europe must allow hormone-treated beef from the US into the EU.