EU Commission rules to boost use of organic and waste-based fertilisers
Copa and Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen said “There is a huge crisis on the EU agricultural markets, with the price farmers get often not covering production costs. Mineral fertilizers are a key input cost for farmers and agri-cooperatives. They account for 30% of variable costs across all sectors. As the first deliverable of the Circular Economy Package, we welcome this proposal to extend the scope of the EU fertilizers regulation to include organic fertilizers so that farmers in Europe will have a wider choice of fertilisers and better access. But the new rules will not address the real core of the problem or have significant impact.”
He continued: “Farmers are not only users of mineral fertilizers, they also produce organic fertilizers like manure and digestates from biogas plants. Certain regions have a surplus whilst others have a deficit. Although the proposal does provide room to allow fertilizers based on manure to be substituted for mineral fertilizers, the proposal is far from realistic. For European farmers, it looks like window dressing. They still cannot make use of the innovative products like mineral concentrates from manure. Moreover, we are concerned about reducing the maximum level for cadmium below 60mg/kg P2O5 which could put additional pressure on production costs of phosphate fertiliser. This gives additional support to our proposal to cut import duties to zero for fertilizer products to reduce input costs. We urge the EU Commission to make this a reality.”
For more information:
Copa Cogeca
Dominique Dejonckheere, Senior Policy Advisor
Tel.: +32 2 287 27 30
Dominique.Dejonckheere@copa-cogeca.eu
www.copa-cogeca.eu