'Profitability is vital' if farmers are to be the drivers of rural economy

UNLESS farmers are profitable, all the ambitions for rural sustainability and improving the environment cannot happen.

This was the stark message given this week by Padraig Walshe, the president of the European-wide farm co-operative movement Copa.

Speaking in Brussels, Walshe said: "What frequently seems to be overlooked are the enormous public benefits which measures under the Common Agricultural Policy have ensured, mainly through two main measures – market management tools and the Single Farm Payment."

Top of Walshe's list of benefits provided were food security and stability for the 500 million consumers within the EU.

He said not only did the food produced in Europe comply with some of the highest standards in the world, but those standards were also forcing producers in other countries to improve their practices.

Although it not a term used much nowadays, he also suggested the CAP had helped ensure the continuation of the "family farm" in Europe. This was in stark contrast with the huge concentration of farms which are now seen in many other major producing countries of the world, such as the United States and Brazil.

Within Europe, 27 million people depend on agriculture for employment, either full-time or part-time. In addition, a further ten million jobs in the rest of the agri-food chain are dependent on agriculture. "At this time, employment is of huge importance to the economic viability or our rural areas," he said.

He said his concern was that these benefits could be at risk in the future. The removal of mechanisms in the marketplace to compensate for extremes of volatility meant farmers within Europe were now as vulnerable to swings and lurches in price and demand as any other producer throughout the world.

Walshe said: "We are opening up our markets to more and more competition to imports which do not meet these standards. Even if Doha does not go ahead, the EU is intent on opening up our markets to a series of countries under bilateral or regional agreements."

These were dangerous moves, coming as they did when, on a European basis only, one-third of farmers' income, on average, comes from the market.

"The remainder comes from direct payments, and the most important is the Single Farm Payment under pillar 1," he said. "This alone represents nearly 50 per cent of farmers' income on average in the EU. This is not a healthy state of affairs.

"I am convinced that if we are going to have an agricultural sector in the EU which meets the needs and expectations of the public in the years to come, we are going to need a stronger CAP than ever," he added.