With the partial agreement in Hong Kong to end agricultural export subsidies by 2013, the EU has, quite predictably, harvested the fruit borne of the lack of realism and tactics shown by the European Commission in negotiations over past months.

The maize season will end on June 30, 2005, with carry-over stock levels too high, possibly reaching 3 million tonnes.

AGPB (wheat) and AGPM are delighted at the liveliness and the faith shown in the future by parties interested in producing new quantities of bioethanol, as seen in response to the call for tenders by the French government in February this year.

Because of the winter drought, changes were made to cropping plans whenever possible, with farmers adopting a responsible approach.

The French Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, has announced the immediate launch of the second stage of the biofuel development plan, which he sees as a major ambition for the nation.

In a statement released on March 18, the Ministry of Agriculture reported that after the call for tenders published in the JOCE in February 2005, with new approvals for 800 000 tonnes (320 000 tonnes of bioethanol and 480 000 tonnes of biodiesel), the requests received have been for a quantity of 2.2 million tonnes of biofuel.

Mr. Luc Esprit, aged 52, took over the general management of the MAIZ’EUROP’ group on March 1, 2005;  he was previously deputy general manager of the group and the associated organisations.

AB Bioenergy France will be submitting a plan to the French Government requesting approval to set up a maize-based ethanol production plant with a capacity of 180 000 tonnes, in Pardies (64 - south-western France).  This will be the first maize-based ethanol plant in Europe.  It is scheduled for commissioning in 2007 and annual consumption will be for more than 400 000 tonnes of maize to be supplied by collectors/transporters in the Aquitaine and Midi-Pyrenees regions.

In the context of major change facing farming in general and field crops in particular, the right conditions must be provided so that farmers, and their partners, both upstream and downstream, have organisations and services catering to their real needs and coping with new challenges.

At the meeting with the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, Dominique Bussereau, on January 18, Christophe Terrain, President of the general association of maize growers (AGPM), drew the Minister’s attention to four issues of key importance for maize growers.