Today in Brussels, Cogeca organised its traditional biannual Business Forum under the topic ‘Securing food and competitiveness in times of crisis. What is the role of agri-food cooperatives?’. The forum, which gathered agri-cooperative representatives from across the EU focused the debate and discussions on the impact of the ongoing crisis in Ukraine on the agri- food sector and the role of agri-food cooperatives in responding, as well as possible solutions to the main issues affecting the sector.
Christian Høegh-Andersen, Coordinator of the Business Forum and Cogeca Vice-President opened the forum by underlining, “EU agri-cooperatives are no strangers to crisis situations, and, after already facing major changes and adaptations, following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on food supply, we are now faced with a disruption to our food supply chains caused by war on our doorstep. Cooperation between farmers means strength through sharing of risk, stability of prices for farmer-members, long-termism over short term profit, and working to achieve an efficient use of available resources. For this reason, agri-cooperatives are well placed to weather emergency situations.”
At EU level, agri-cooperatives account for about half of all agricultural trade and thus are key to ensuring European consumers have access to safe, nutritious and reliable supplies of food. The current war on Ukraine by Russia has meant that food affordability and security have become as much a pressing issue for agri-cooperatives as the society as a whole.
Given the central role of Russia and Ukraine in exporting grains and oils, the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russia threatens supply and prices of food. Furthermore, food affordability for low-income households across the EU, already affected by the pandemic, is being worsened by this crisis. Internationally, there is an even greater impact on food security, especially those countries depending on basic commodity imports.
These were the key issues address by the keynote speakers Mr. Ahmad Sadiddin (Economist at FAO) and Mr. Arnaud Petit (Executive Director at International Grain Council) as well as during the agri-cooperative roundtable discussion comprising 6 EU cooperatives from different sectors.
“The engagement from participants during this Cogeca Presidency Business Forum offers us an insightful new perspectives on how, as agri-cooperatives, we can adapt to crisis and come out stronger as a result. Indeed, the spirit of cooperation is inherent to the agri-cooperative movement, and this means that we cannot respond to challenges alone but that we must act together at all levels of the value chain to mitigate, adapt and come out stronger” concluded Cogeca President Ramon Armengol.
Artigo publicado originalmente em Copa Cogeca.
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