Brussels has followed through on its April commitment to set up a new non-political Meat MO to provide hard data and analysis on the trends across the European meat industry.
Based on the blueprint for the Milk Market Observatory – a sister body that provided the dairy industry with support during the ongoing milk pricing crisis – the EU Meat MO will provide short-term analysis to the industry. It also has a group of three meat executives who will meet at least three times a year.
“I want the EU meat sector to have a similarly strong support system [to the milk market],” said EU agriculture commissioner Phil Hogan when he announced the new observatory in Brussels
“I believe our meat products are the finest and safest in the world, and their export value is already huge, with great potential for further growth.”
Meat MO welcomed
The data provider is made up of seven EU meat industry stakeholders across the beef, veal and pork supply chains. The first meeting of the so-called Meat MO is scheduled for 27 October 2016.
EU farming body Copa-Cogeca has welcomed the Meat MO and claimed it would give livestock producers up-to-date information that could help the industry mitigate a potential crisis.
“[The Meat MO] will provide an early mechanism to participate potential crises and take quick action,” said Copa-Cogeca secretary-general Pekka Pesonen. “Data from the observatory can be used by our working parties and the civil dialogue groups to reflect on the market situation and policy measures.”
Jean-Pierre Fleury, president of France’s Fédération National Bovine and chairman of Copa-Cogeca’s Beef Working Party, said: “There are very close links between the EU beef and dairy sectors and we need to ensure this tool helps anticipate the potential impact that extreme volatility in the dairy sector could have on the beef sector and, in particular, on specialised beef production.”
Antonio Tavares, chairman of Copa & Cogeca’s Pigmeat Working Party, added: “With a market- and consumer-oriented sector and as first world pigmeat exporter, EU-wide quality and statistical information is vital in order to analyse potential market trends, to support producers and to allow a good functioning market. Today there is a lack of information at retailer and consumer level and this forum should also tackle this dimension.”