MAIZE ECONOMY & MARKETS

CAP & Health Check:  maintain market management tools
Intervention has been seen to be a valid mechanism, and that includes times of great volatility of both prices and volumes available.  The mechanism must therefore be maintained.
The principle of land set-aside serves the same purpose.  CEPM is therefore calling for it to be maintained as a tool used for regulating supply.
CEPM is opposed to any increase in modulation, and is calling for support for the implementation of risk management mechanisms, i.e. for climate, economic and health risks.
 
Maize imports:  bringing back import tariffs
European regulations include a clause for reintroducing import tariffs when criteria linked to European grain prices are met.  Current conditions are certainly in line with the criteria required for bringing them back, including import tariffs on maize, with the outlook suggesting that the decline in prices will be lasting.  CEPM therefore does not understand the attitude of the European Commission with the continued refusal to act – evidence that there is no flexibility or reactivity.
 
Non-food markets & bioethanol:  maintaining renewable energy targets
Maize is a source or renewable carbon for plant chemistry, and a source of renewable energy that reduces greenhouse gas emissions.  Biogas and bioethanol made from maize feedstock have now become reality in Europe.  CEPM is therefore calling for renewable energy targets on overall energy consumption and transport to be maintained.  CEPM is opposed to the introduction of secondary targets for different types of renewable energy (e.g. electricity or hydrogen).  This type of approach would complicate legislation and would be a denial of technological advances and economic progress made in different production sectors in Member States.
  
INPUTS
 
Plant Protection Products:  avoiding a technical impasse
National governments must show clear determination as they work to make sure that the revision of Directive CE91/414 (approving active plant protection substances) does not end up leaving farmers in a technical impasse, with a large number of products being taken off the market.
CEPM is therefore calling for the substance assessment criteria to be amended.  The issue at stake is farmers’ access to a large and varied range of products that are indispensable for producing better crops in greater quantities to satisfy the needs of European consumers.
 
Water:  managing the resource
This year, once again, water and drought were major issues in European discussions, following on from the “Drought” paper issued by the European Commission in July 2007.
Irrigation is an essential input needed to satisfy both quantitative and qualitative objectives.  Management of the resource through an incentive policy for water storage, and in a situation of climate change, is a priority for CEPM.
 
GM maize:  for steady development
CEPM is asking the European Union to set up regulatory measures for assessment, limits and approvals designed so that all Member States can reap the benefit of this technology and thus take up the technical, economic and health challenges facing maize farming.  CEPM has therefore drawn attention to the different expert reports which provide evidence showing that mutually respectful coexistence of both GM and non-GM crops is feasible.
 
The membership of CEPM (European Confederation of Maize Production) is comprised of organisations representing maize-growers in the following countries:  Germany, Bulgaria, Spain, France, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania.
  
Press :        
Anne KETTANEH

Tél : 01.44.31.10.96 
Portable : 06.83.22.05.01