What are the biggest challenges facing the beef sector in the near future? In the opinion of Jacak Zarzecki, president of the Polish Association of Beef Cattle Breeders and Producers, these include: attempts to conclude an agreement with Mercosur countries and the dark side of the Green Deal. “We will not allow the beef sector to be sacrificed for the benefit of large industry,” Zarzecki emphasizes. “We have already hit a wall and there is no consent for European agriculture to sacrifice us in the name of any ideology,” he adds.
During the Beef Sector Forum, which is an opportunity to discuss the most important topics for breeders and producers of beef cattle, Jacek Zarzecki, president of the Polish Association of Beef Cattle Breeders and Producers, shared with us his opinion on the most important challenges facing the beef sector in the near future.
Profitability of production and combating population decline
Our interlocutor noted that the biggest challenge facing the beef sector remains unchanged and is “taking care of profitability, because many issues depend on it.”
– We must ensure the profitability of beef production to limit potential declines in the cattle population in Poland and the European Union, so that our production remains competitive, so that we can open and conquer new markets. Taking care of profitability is also key to solving the most important problem we face today, and which representatives of the entire beef sector in the old EU are already struggling with, i.e. how to persuade the young generation to get involved with the sector and to have successors on farms, said Zarzecki.
Attempts to conclude an agreement with Mercosur countries
The president of PZHiPBM added that the issue of trying to conclude an agreement with Mercosur countries is also a big challenge for the beef sector.
– Today, the challenge for the beef sector is not Ukraine, because we are one of the few sectors of European agriculture that is not so influenced by the situation of our eastern neighbor. However, it involves attempts to conclude an agreement with the Mercosur countries. We see that the European Commissioner for Trade has such ambitions and we will loudly emphasize that there is no consent of European farmers, there is no consent of Polish farmers to conclude negotiations and sign an agreement with the Mercosur countries. We will not allow the Polish and European beef sector to be sacrificed for the benefit of large industry or other branches of the economy, noted Zarzecki.
– We have prepared a position on this matter, which we submitted to the Polish Minister of Agriculture and the European Commissioner for Agriculture, as well as the President of the European Commission, with a request for support. The voice of farmers must finally be heard. I hope that after the numerous protests throughout the European Union, it has come to Brussels that the voice of farmers must be taken into account. Farmers must be listened to, especially since protests in each country involve completely different problems, he explained.
Two faces of the European Green Deal
Our interlocutor also mentioned the Green Deal, which has two faces.
– A big challenge for the agri-food sector is the European Green Deal, which, as the EU Commissioner for Agriculture emphasizes, has two colors – a light one, based on incentives and voluntary actions, and a dark one, based on challenges with nothing behind them apart from empty ideology, and there are no adequate financial resources for this transformation. We have already reached the wall and there is no consent for European agriculture to sacrifice us in the name of any ideology, said Zarzecki.
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