The European Union will be forced to produce more food but with fewer resources as the population grows, said Spanish Agriculture Minister Luis Plana, citing this as the reason for the concept of strategic autonomy being put on the table.
The war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic “have forced us to reflect on food geopolitics and have put the concept of strategic autonomy in the value chain on the table,” Planas (PSOE/S&D) told EURACTIV’s partner EFEagro in an exclusive interview.
Among the challenges for this year, Planas cited the implementation of the new CAP, the Spanish presidency of the EU Council in the second half of the year, and the geopolitical context, marked by the Ukraine war.
Spain has scheduled five formal EU Councils of Agriculture and Fisheries in the second half of the year and another two informal Councils, one to be held in July in Vigo and another scheduled for September in Cordoba, EFE reported.
Those who “think that we have to move (in the EU) towards a decrease in food production, I do not agree with that at all,” he said.
“In addition to the increase in population (estimated at more than 9 billion by 2050), war and COVID open up another new reflection on the geopolitics of food production: communications and foreign trade can be disrupted, hence the importance of another concept, that of strategic autonomy,” said the minister.
The impact (of the war) on the energy and fertiliser markets is one example, as is the case with cereals, an area in which the European Union has created a register of “stocks” (also for oilseeds and rice) because “we didn’t know what we had and it is important in a context in which we have to maintain this autonomy,” he pointed out.
To protect producers from the rise in their inputs like energy, raw materials or fertilisers, and consumers from the increase in food prices, the Spanish Government has approved several alleviating measures, among them reductions in diesel prices and VAT has been abolished on basic foodstuffs and reduced on oil and pasta, he said.
In 2023 “two great cross winds will converge that have already been experienced in 2022: that citizens have quality food at reasonable prices and that its production moves towards a sustainable model over time, using fewer resources and avoiding their loss and waste,” said the minister.
The latter is “essential”, he insisted, adding that the Spanish draft law on waste will be voted on in parliament this year and “will be used as (source) of inspiration by the European Commission because we cannot allow 30% of food to go to waste. It is a political, economic, social, and, it must be said, an ethical issue.”
Read the full interview (in Spanish)
(Laura Cristóbal | Efeagro)
Source: euractiv.com
