Originally pubished in Agricultural Bulletin, 2007
With set-aside not scheduled for discussion until November, the EU Commission’s recent announcement to fix it at 0% for 2008 came quite unexpectedly.
In a surprise move, EU farm ministers agreed at their July council meeting to fix compulsory set-aside at 0% for the 2008 growing season.
While the decision is not yet set in law, the Commission expects to confirm the zero rate by the end of August so that farmers can start planting additional crops this autumn. However, this is a one-off derogation and does not abolish set-aside permanently.
The decision was driven by low intervention stocks, the uncertainty of this season’s harvest due to the disruptive weather, and the livestock sector’s high prices. The Commission estimates that the move should increase EU cereal production by between 10m and 17m tonnes for the 2008 harvest.
