Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Sirkka-Liisa Anttila (Centre) has defended that the agreement reached with the European Commission on agricultural subsidies.
Anttila said on Tuesday that the terms under which Finland can continue to pay subsidies to farmers in the south of the country under Article 141 of the accession treaty to the European Union, will lead to a reduction in overproduction of pork and eggs.
The agreement that was hammered out in recent negotiations includes a stipulation that part of the Article 141 subsidies is to be shifted into compensation for disadvantageous conditions of nature.
The latter is not paid on the basis of volumes of output, but rather on the basis of the number of hectares of land that is farmed. Anttila estimates that Finland will be able get between EUR 15-20 million in such subsidies as of 2011.
Anttila says that Finland has increased production of pork and poultry, contrary to stipulations in the accession treaty. She insists that the overproduction must come to an end.
Anttila adds that it is important from the point of view of the environment that there should be a sufficient amount of arable land in proportion to the number of animals being raised. She says that there needs to be a sufficient amount of fields to absorb the manure produced by the animals.
Anttila said that understands the difficulties that farmers raising pigs and poultry are having in understanding the agreement reached with the Commission on Article 141 subsidies, which reduces the support for these farms.
Speaking on Tuesday at an event organised by the ministry, she nevertheless pointed out that the agreement has been welcomed by dairy farmers.
The ministry is holding talks with the Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK) and its Swedish language sister organisation on the implications of the agreement. Both sides hope that a result will be available by Monday.
The government will discuss the matter on Thursday next week, regardless of the results of the negotiations with the producer side.
The aim of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is to have a proposal from the government to submit to the Commission already at the next meeting of the Council on Agriculture, which is to take place before Christmas.
A working group set up to find ways to improve the competitiveness of agriculture started its work on Tuesday.
The group is looking into the possibilities of increasing agricultural income by improving the market, or by reducing costs.
