If the EU follows the British, it will ‘shoot itself in the foot’ for farmers

The trade agreement between the United States and Great Britain includes, among other things, open access for American agricultural products, including beef and ethanol. For EU breeders and cattle fatteners, the agreement should not have consequences as, for example, Croatian breeders market their beef to the Italian and Middle Eastern markets. However, if the EU signs such or a similar agreement with the US, it would be, as the president of the Baby beef association, Toni Raič, vividly expressed, ‘a shot in the knee for European farmers’.

– Cattle breeding, and the entire livestock sector, is at the top of the agricultural pyramid. Without the production of milk and meat, there are no processors, and on the other hand, there is no primary agricultural production either. To be clear, this does not mean that agricultural production will disappear, but it will not have enough momentum to develop. Therefore, it would not be good for the EU to sign such an agreement with the Americans – Raič is clear.

He emphasizes that American meat production is not similar to European and claims that the cattle across the Atlantic are older and that the quality is ‘nowhere near our breeding’.

– However, we producers will probably not be able to do anything judging by the fact that no one in Brussels listened to us during the EU agreement with the Mercosur countries, namely Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay – says Raič.

Zvjezdana Blažić, the owner of the consulting firm Geja savjetovanje, warned that the productivity of EU agriculture is incomparable to that on both American continents. The average agricultural area in the EU is 17 hectares per farmer (including companies), while in the US, for example, it is 180 hectares.

– That is, I can freely say, incomparable. But not only that, because unlike Europeans who do not expand their production, their colleagues in the US not only expand it but also invest heavily in technology and artificial intelligence. These are really significant investments that even the strongest agricultural members in the EU, such as France, Italy, and Spain, can hardly keep up with – says Blažić.

For this reason, she believes that the EU should not sign such an agreement with the US. All these agreements, both the signed ones and the potential ones with the US, are dangerous for European agriculture. Since the agreement with Mercosur has not yet been ratified, Blažić hopes that European producers will get time to adapt and believes that they should receive the same if the EU follows the example of Great Britain.