AN extension of the intervention ceiling for beef from 400,000 tonnes to 720,000 tonnes is expected to be agreed in the European Parliament on Friday. The extension will be part of a compensation package proposed for beef farmers who have suffered as a result of the BSE crisis.
It was decided yesterday in the parliament in Strasbourg that urgent discussions should go ahead on Friday on ways to give aid to the beef sector. However, requests that aid to the cereal sector should be reduced and transferred to the beef sector were rejected. Calls for changes in investment grants for beef production were also dismissed.
The proposal to extend the intervention ceiling has been supported by the agricultural committee of the parliament, indicating that it will be carried on Friday. The European Commission has warned that intervention will reach the present ceiling of 400,000 tonnes by the end of this month. There has also been agreement on extending the categories of carcass to be admitted for intervention.
A report by the Commission to the parliament states that the market for beef in the EU has been plunged into serious difficulties as a result of the BSE crisis. This had primarily been expressed in a dramatic fall in beef consumption by as much as 20 to 30 per cent in some member states, a collapse on producer prices and a sharp rise in buying in by public intervention agencies.
The Commission warns that there is little sign that the situation will improve in the near future, and when cattle are taken off pasture in the autumn the market will be subject to further strains.
Measures proposed by the Commission to stabilise the beef market include a marked increase in intervention quantities for 1996/97.
The report states that the possibilities of easing the market have not yet been exhausted and must be extended.
A lasting solution to the present crisis affecting the beef market can only be found if further measures are taken to ease the strain on the market and consumer confidence is created or restored, it states.