HAMBURG/REUTERS
European animal feed makers called on the European Union Aug. 3 to sell its intervention grain stocks to help cool rising cereals prices.
The EU has about five million tonnes of grain, largely barley, in its intervention stocks, which should now be sold following a 40 per cent rise in some grains prices since July, said the European Compound Feed Manufacturers’ Federation (FEFAC) in a statement.
Under its intervention scheme, the EU supports farmers by purchasing some cereals at minimum prices in a scheme called intervention. The intervention stocks can be resold into the EU market to relieve tight supplies.
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FEFAC also called on the EU to consider measures to allow more control of “excessive speculation” in futures markets.
“Speculation on the cereals market is the key reason for the current price hikes,” FEFAC president Patrick Vanden Avenne said in a statement. “This affects all partners of the EU cereals chain who are raising serious concerns on artificial food price inflation.”
FEFAC said it was also worried about higher feed prices which could undermine the competitiveness of the EU livestock sector, which is still recovering from the previous price shock in the 2007-08 marketing year.
