The cost of war for agriculture. Patuanelli: “Companies must be supported, production too expensive”

Farmers must be supported or they will be brought to their knees by the crisis unleashed by the war in Ukraine. This is the warning of Stefano Patuanelli, convinced that “our country can withstand the sanctions imposed on Russia, but the Italian farmer cannot stand alone such a high increase in production costs – he explains – support is needed for supply chains and ‘entire agri-food sector “. The Minister of Agriculture spoke at the conference organized by Eunews (Hub Group), entitled “New CAP: what future for European agri-food”. The war changed the scenario and made the reform of the agricultural policy of the European Union, which will come into force in 2023 and introduce new rules on the resources to be allocated to environmental protection with a strong impact on agricultural activities, on livestock farming. and on the sustainability of the sector itself. “No member state of the EU can be self-sufficient from a food point of view, it was a mistake to delocalize the production of primary materials – says Patuanelli – today this is an issue that arises before us as a critical issue”. The first challenge to be faced, adds the minister, “is that of energy: the point is the cost of production”. As for the need to update the new CAP, in light of the Ukrainian crisis, Patuanelli observes that “strategic plans cannot be changed, but perhaps it is right to consider implementing the reform with a different timing, for example a temporary suspension for some aspects or a one-year postponed entry into force of the new CAP ”. Skeptical about the hypothesis of a postponement is the former minister Paolo De Castro, now Pd MEP: “Nobody in Europe is asking for a postponement of the CAP on the basis of war – he assures in his speech – the problem of European industry is that we are too dependent from the importation of some raw materials, we must work on this in the logic of protecting food safety “.