Agri-Pulse Quotes Craig Thorn on EU Pesticide Trade Barriers

Producers and farm groups across the pond have been vocally against the Farm to Fork limitations — and that’s still the case — but now most of their efforts have turned to convincing regulators not to put them at a disadvantage to farmers in the U.S., Brazil and elsewhere, said Craig Thorn, founder of DTB Associates.

European agricultural production would decline by as much as 4% and food prices would rise by as much as 60% as a result of Farm to Fork, according to USDA economists who evaluated multiple scenarios.

“As soon as it became clear that the EU intended to proceed anyway (with Farm to Fork), European farmers switched their position and started talking a lot more about fairness and leveling the playing field and how if regulators were going to impose these restrictions on Europeans, they had to do the same thing to competitors and block imports,” Thorn said.

So, if EU regulators are intent on making farming harder for European producers, they would have to put new burdens on their competitors overseas.