Hungary has requested additional EU subsidy measures for the poultry, pork and dairy sectors in response to the coronavirus crisis.
EU farm ministers agree that measures taken so far by the European Commission are insufficient to deal with the crisis, the Ministry of Agriculture said on Thursday, commenting on a video conference of EU farm ministers the previous day. The EU farm commissioner has been asked to take further emergency measures immediately, the ministry said in a statement.
State secretary Zsolt Feldman, who led the Hungarian delegation, asked the European Commission to unlock Eu funds for private storage in the poultry, pork and dairy sectors.
Private storage subsidies for cheese and skimmed milk powder proposed by the commission earlier does not solve the problems of Hungarian farmers, therefore Hungary has requested its extension to UHT milk.
In the pork sector, the decline in exports due to the coronavirus epidemic and African swine fever justifies the introduction of subsidies for private storage, the statement said. This is true for the poultry sector, too, in which surpluses due to imports from non-EU countries could be effectively dealt with accordingly, Feldman said.
Most ministers agreed that CAP subsidies already available would not be sufficient to deal effectively with the current crisis, but should be supplemented by fresh EU funding. If this is done, most of the member states, including Hungary, would use these additional resources to primarily aid the wine, fruit and vegetable, poultry and pork sectors, the ministry said.