Following months of work, the final report of the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture – entitled ‘A shared prospect for farming and food in Europe’ – was presented by Professor Peter Strohschneider to President Ursula von der Leyen on 4 September 2024
The European Consortium of the Organic-Based Fertiliser Industry (ECOFI) welcomes this publication and would like to congratulate Prof Strohschneider and the member organisations of the Strategic Dialogue for their work. ECOFI would also like to thank Prof Strohschneider for inviting ECOFI to submit written feedback to the process.
We now eagerly await the publication of the European Commission’s Vision for Agriculture and Food, which will be based on the recommendations from this report.
While speaking at the press conference announcing the publication of the report, von der Leyen noted how vital the agricultural sector is to the EU. ECOFI welcomes these sentiments and hopes that the Commission does not leave this report to lie idle but rather launch concrete and proactive initiatives to ensure the agricultural sector is a key strategic focus of the 2024 to 2029 Commission Work Plan.
ECOFI welcomes the importance placed on protecting and promoting our farmers’ position in the agri-food chain and ensuring adequate funding for them. This will ensure a more environmentally and economically sustainable future for our farmers and our rural areas.
Recently, ECOFI released its manifesto, which called on the EU to create a fresh vision for the agriculture and food sectors, involving taking transformative action to support farmers, guarantee food security, and bolster the EU’s strategic autonomy and circularity. We are glad to see so many of the Strategic Dialogue’s recommendations echo what is in our manifesto!
In particular, ECOFI welcomes the following recommendations:
C.1 Working together for a sustainable and competitive future
- 1.4 Financing the transition
- EU policy must focus on incentivising farmers’ uptake of innovative and sustainable farming practices – including the use of organic-based fertilisers (OBFs) – to support farmers in this transition
- Increased access to and uptake of OBFs can improve farmer profitability and their competitiveness by optimising other inputs and enhancing soil fertility
C.2 Advancing towards sustainable food systems
- 2.2 Soil Management, biodiversity, fertilisation and circularity
- OBFs are circular products which can help farmers increase yields, improve soil health and enhance biodiversity on both organic and conventional farms.
- ECOFI welcomes the report’s call to the European Commission to put forward their long-awaited Integrated Nutrient Management Plan.
- The emphasis on complementarity in nutrient management is also vital to helping farmers ensure balanced plant nutrition and soil fertility, remain competitive and protect food security as they move towards a more sustainable future of farming.
- 2.4 Leveraging the opportunities offered by bioeconomy
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- OBF producers prevent unnecessary nutrient losses by transforming by-products from various bio-based industries into high-quality fertilising products.
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C.3 Promoting transformative resilience
- 3.3 Robust risk and crisis management
- Promoting the combined use of OBFs with mineral fertilising products by farmers within an integrated plant nutrition plan can help the EU mitigate the risks posed by overdependencies on certain critical inputs and bolster the EU’s open strategic autonomy
C.4 Building an attractive and diverse sector
- 4.4 Invigorating rural communities
- Promoting farmers’ use of recycled nutrients in the form of OBFs can support thriving rural communities as production plants are often established in rural areas close to where they source their raw materials, helping to secure skilled rural jobs across the EU.
C.5 Better access to and use of knowledge and innovation
- 5.2 Increasing investments and partnerships in Research & Innovation
- 5.3 Streamlining regulatory procedures for the access to market for new technologies and innovation
- European policymakers must ensure policy coherence to enable innovative companies, such as ECOFI members, to help achieve the EU’s own political vision of a circular economy, including enabling and incentivising the widespread use and application of OBFs.
- This point is particularly relevant for OBFs as some of our most innovative and circular products are still blocked from accessing the EU Single Market due to policy incoherence. Although the EU Fertilising Products Regulation was the first legislative proposal under the last Commission’s Circular Economy Action Plan, its stated aim to increase cross-border trade of organic fertilisers in Europe has yet to materialise due to regulatory obstacles. EU regulation needs to enable circular products such as OBFs to access the market and support EU policy objectives, not establish additional obstacles to them.
For more information on ECOFI and the OBF industry, you can read our manifesto or contact jessica@prospero.ag