The EU’s Recently Launched Agri-Food Strategy, ‘Vision for Agriculture and Food,’ Clearly Focuses on Farmers, Notes FoodNavigator.

A Successor

As the successor to the "Farm-to-Fork" strategy, the new document significantly emphasizes the protection of farmers.

The strategy follows widespread farmer protests that have shaken the bloc in recent years and acknowledges their introduction.

In fact, the Vision, as explained by Thijs Geijer, a sector economist at ING Research, focuses much more on farmers in particular than the Farm-to-Fork strategy, which targeted the entire value chain.

Young people are increasingly leaving the profession, he says, which means the EU wants to make it more attractive to new workers to prevent a decline in the agricultural workforce.

Simplifying Regulations

Regulatory complexity is often seen as one of the key factors making life difficult for farmers. The Vision aims to simplify such regulations to alleviate some of these issues.

The Commission will seek to move away from a "one-size-fits-all" regulatory approach and make it more flexible to the individual farmer’s context.

The strategy has highlighted the need to stress-test regulations and check their practical implications while avoiding "gold-plating" (when a member state creates a law with additional requirements beyond the EU’s minimum compliance standards).

There should also be a better “burden-sharing” between member states and farmers themselves, it suggested. The Commission aims to launch a simplification package as early as Q2 2025.

One area it will seek to simplify is sustainability regulations. The sustainability regulatory landscape has become "fragmented," the Vision suggests, and needs simplification.

Alongside simplifying these regulations, a voluntary benchmarking system for farm sustainability assessments will be introduced, allowing farmers to compare their sustainability credentials against a set of established criteria. This aims to reduce administrative burdens for farmers.

Changing the CAP Payment Structure

According to the Vision, payments through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) accounted for about 23% of farm income on average in 2020. CAP payments will not only continue but, according to the Vision, will become "simpler and more targeted."

This means they will be more extensively directed toward small and medium-sized farmers as well as farms facing natural constraints. This is partly because compliance burdens with regulations are higher for smaller farms with fewer resources.

The Commission will consider increasing degressivity and capping policies.

In the past, according to Geijer from ING Research, the CAP funded farmers based on the number of hectares of land they owned.

Degressivity and capping will mean this balance shifts so that some smaller farmers receive more while limiting the amount larger farms obtain.

Finally, farmers will be given more flexibility in designing their agricultural practices adapted to their specific context. The future CAP will shift "away from conditions toward incentives."

Embracing Biotechnology

Biotechnology has been a key part of food and beverages in recent years, with research in this sector receiving public funding.

The Vision strategy also aims to develop the biotechnology sector, committing to embracing the bioeconomy and launching a "bioeconomy strategy" by the end of the year.

This means expanding biotechnologies and accelerating the commercialization of "bio-based and circular solutions," as well as bridging investment gaps.

Biotechnology can help farmers, the strategy suggests, by enabling them to diversify value streams and utilize agricultural residues while also strengthening the role of primary producers at a macro level and creating new jobs.

“De-Risking” Sustainability

While sustainability remains a part of the strategy, it also seeks to ensure that risks to farmers are minimized.

According to the Vision, agriculture faced a financing gap of EUR 62 billion as of 2022. Obtaining a loan from a bank is often difficult for small farmers due to the volatility of weather patterns and commodity prices.

Financing tools, such as blended finance, where the Commission will use public money to "de-risk" private capital, are promised as a way to ensure that farmers remain protected. Blended finance can also be used to reward farmers for "nature-positive" practices and connect them with investors who have a "business interest" in these practices.

The CAP itself will be reformed to enhance farmers’ resilience to climate shocks. Research will be funded to make crops more resistant to climate change, for example.

Trade Changes