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Read below article taken from our policy platform dated
06/04/20.
Italy saw signs that supermarket sales were slowing down last
week compared with the start of the lockdown in that country.
The country initially saw 21 days of double-digit growth but
retail value sales were only increasing by 5.4% in the week between
March 16-22, the latest data published by Nielsen reveals. The
north-east recorded the highest increases (+8.9%), followed by the
south (+8.3%), the north-west (+4.2%) and the centre (+2.3%).
The EU dairy industry expressed alarm that France and Italy have
taken unilateral measures to support the dairy markets in their own
countries, despite CAP regulations stating that all such market
support have to be taken at EU level.
In a letter addressed to Niksa Tkalec, the Croatian official who
currently chairs the EU's Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA),
EDA President Michel Nalet claimed that some member states were
already taking unilateral action to prop up falling market prices,
in contravention of CAP rules.
In the UK, an association representing flour millers reported
how mills were working round the clock to produce flour as people
stayed at home under lockdown rules and rediscovered home
baking.
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, and in response to the subsequent
lockdown in the UK in late March, both regular bulk buyers and
consumers have been purchasing much more flour than normal.
German and UK NGOs called on their governments to provide food
support to the most vulnerable as the COVID pandemic saw the
closure of a network of food banks and other outlets for society's
most vulnerable.
FDA carries on, Trump makes pledge on
guestworkers
In the US, FDA Deputy Commissioner for Food Safety and Response,
Frank Yiannas, sought to reassure consumers that despite the
COVID-19 pandemic, the FDA continued to work on its mission to
ensure the safety of the food supply.
US president Donald Trump said that farmers would continue to
have access to critical H-2A guestworkers - even as new border
restrictions were put in place to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Trump stressed at an April 1st press conference that he
understood farmers' need for H-2A workers and vowed to ensure they
continue to have access to the critical labour pool - which make up
around 10% of the crop farm workforce but are especially important
to some subsectors like fruit and produce.
On the same say, a coalition of 35 national trade associations -
including the American Farm Bureau Federation, National Farmers
Union, the United Fresh Produce Association, livestock
organizations, major commodity grower groups and pesticide industry
interests - sent a letter to all 50 state governors highlighting
the importance of the leadership of state and local officials in
addressing the COVID-19 pandemic while calling for several actions
to ensure the continued movement of food and ag products.
Globally, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
reported that the COVID-19 pandemic had driven down food
prices.
"The price drops are largely driven by demand factors, not
supply, and the demand factors are influenced by ever-more
deteriorating economic prospects," FAO's renior Economist Abdolreza
Abbassian said.
