Netherlands

Milk Production in Europe Continues to Fall: Here are Two Big Reasons Why

Sun, 04 Feb 2024 22:08:16 GMT

The ongoing implementation of environmental regulations, called the European Green Deal, and low agricultural commodity prices have sparked numerous farmer protests across Europe. Dairy has not been immune as new regulations weigh on milk production. November EU milk collections fell to levels not seen in years, according to Betty Berning, analyst with the Daily Dairy Report.

Approved in 2020, the European Green Deal is a set of policy initiatives designed to help the trading blocreduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. The initiatives extend to many different sectors of the economy, including construction, biodiversity, energy, transportation, and food and agriculture.

“The protests occurring across the continent underscore farmers’ frustration with low revenues and increased restrictions,” Berning said. “While governments seem to be listening, it’s unclear whether meaningful action will be taken. Moreover, with environmental limits already in place in Ireland and the Netherlands, change could come too late to cause a significant shift in the trajectory of the EU dairy sector.”

November milk production in the European Union and the United Kingdom fell 2.5%, compared to a year earlier, to 26.6 billion pounds, based on preliminary data and estimates from Eurostat, CLAL, and the UK’s Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB). November milk production was the lowest for any November since 2018 and the fourth month in a row that volumes declined on a year-over-year basis. Ireland’s November milk collections plunged 20%, or 218.3 million pounds, to 882.4 million pounds vs. November 2022, as the country headed into its seasonal low.

“Ongoing environmental restrictions have been pushing production lower across Europe, and November’s production loss highlights the continent’s ongoing reduction in milk flows,” Berning said.

Through November 2023, annual year-over-year milk production was up a marginal 0.1%, with losses beginning in August. According to USDA’s October estimates, Europe’s trend toward declining output will continue into this year, with 2024 milk volumes forecast to drop 0.14% from 2023 levels to 320 billion pounds.

“German farmers took to the streets of Berlin in late January to protest rising taxes and a lack of subsidies,” Berning noted. “The demonstrations were part of ongoing farmer protests as Germany rolls out austerity measures to cover holes in its budget.”

Reuters and other news outlets reported that similar demonstrations have been occurring in other countries since late last year. Farmers in France, for example, have blocked roads around Paris as they call for “urgent action on low farmgate prices, green regulation, and free-trade policies,” according to Reuters.

Some headway could be occurring in France, where Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said he will not reduce tax breaks for diesel fuel destined for agricultural use, one of the farmers’ chief grievances. He also said the government will distribute emergency funds more quickly and levy substantial fines on corporations that do not follow price negotiation rules.

“Farmers in Poland have voiced concerns over agricultural imports from Ukraine as well as over the European Green Deal,” Berning said. “Agricultural products from Ukraine have reportedly been flooding Poland’s market as demand remains low in the war-torn nation, causing Polish farm revenue to drop.”

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Which Foreign Country Owns the Most Farmland in the U.S.? Hint: It's Not China

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 17:24:37 GMT

Controversy continues to grow across the U.S., and China is the primary target of the new rules. However, China doesn’t own the most farmland in the U.S., according to a new USDA report. It’s actually Canada, which accounts for 32%, or 14.2 million acres.

Rounding out the top five are the Netherlands at 12%, Italy at 6%, the United Kingdom at 6% and Germany at 5%. Together, citizens in those countries hold 13 million acres, or 29%, of the foreign-held acres in the U.S. China owns less than 1%, or 349,442 acres.

(Farm Journal)

All told, 43.4 million acres of forest and farmland in the U.S., or 3.4% of all ag land, is foreign owned as of Dec. 31, 2022. Roughly 30 million of those acres are reported as foreign-owned, with the remainder primarily under a 10-year-or-longer lease. Of the 30 million, 66% is owner-operated, 14% has a tenant or sharecropper as the producer and 12% report a manager other than the owner or a tenant/sharecropper as producer. The remaining 7% are “NA.”

USDA says the two biggest Chinese-owned companies with land holdings in the U.S. are Brazos Highland and Murphy Brown LLC, which owns Smithfield Foods. Brazos Highland reported owning 102,345 acres, and Smithfield owns 97,975 acres.

(Farm Journal)

The top five states with the largest Chinese holdings are:

Texas at 162,167 acres
North Carolina at 44,776 acres
Missouri at 43,071 acres
Utah at 32,447 acres
Virginia at 14,382 acres

USDA reports those five states combined account for 85% of China’s farmland ownership. In Texas, USDA reports China has long-term leases associated with wind energy, and in North Carolina and Missouri, ownership is tied to Smithfield and producers who contract for pork production.

More States to Take Up Possible Bans in 2024

Foreign-held farmland has become a hot button topic on Capitol Hill. Farm Journal Washington correspondent Jim Wiesemeyer thinks it will continue to gain momentum in 2024 as a political ploy used by candidates.

“It’s an emotional issue, and it’s not a simple issue either,” Wiesemeyer says. “I was recently in Missouri, and some commodity leaders worry about the negative consequences of going too far. No one’s saying China should not be watched relative to buying farmland near airports, national security is involved in that case, but more than a few farmers are looking at the potential downsides for pork producers who contract with Smithfield and the number of acres they own.”

One of those unintended consequences is playing out in Arkansas.

“I’m announcing Syngenta, a Chinese state-owned agrichemical company, must give up its landing holdings in Arkansas,” says Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, referencing a 160-acre research site owned by Northrup King Seed, a Syngenta subsidiary.

Eric Boeck, president of Syngenta Seeds North America, told Farm Journal editor Clinton Griffiths: “EPA and USDA many times require us to do work and permitting right in the same state as we’re going to sell products. One of the first things we have to make sure we figure out is how we work with the local community to make sure we’re still getting products tested in their backyard, so we have the ability to sell those products.”

(Farm Journal)

Syngenta argues if they sell that particular farm, Arkansas farmers will be at a disadvantage because research can’t be done in the same weather and soil conditions.

“We’re heavy in the soybean market in Arkansas, some of those maturity zones, we have a very significant market share and savings,” Boeck says. “We want to make sure we’re protecting those farmers’ abilities to be able to use our products.”

Wiesemeyer says the bigger issue for U.S. farmland might be solar panels, with farmers in states like Missouri reporting companies have offered to pay more than $1,000 per acre cash rent to put solar panels on their farm. At such a high price, he says it’s eating up acres of farmland, with the potential to grow even more in 2024.

Dutch Dairy Cooperative FrieslandCampina Cuts 1,800 Jobs

Tue, 12 Dec 2023 18:06:29 GMT

Dutch dairy cooperative FrieslandCampina on Tuesday said it would cut 1,800 jobs worldwide in the next two years in a drive to reduce costs and improve profitability.

FrieslandCampina said the job cuts would result in up to 200 million euros ($215 million) in savings, as part of a program to lower annual costs by 400 million to 500 million euros from 2026.

FrieslandCampina is one of the world’s largest dairy cooperations, selling its milk, cheese and baby formula and ingredients for the food and pharmaceutical industries in more than 100 countries across the globe.

It employs around 22,000 people in 30 countries, and had a turnover of 14 billion euros in 2022. ($1 = 0.9281 euros) (Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

Dutch Government Imposes Ag Cutbacks, Farmers Revolt

Thu, 14 Jul 2022 20:42:19 GMT

Via a first-in-the-world regulatory push, “the tiny country that feeds the world,” is facing monumental alteration of its agricultural industry.

The Netherlands ranks second only to the United States in global agricultural exports, and is the European Union’s largest meat exporter. It accomplishes these feats on a land base that is approximately 270 times smaller than that of the U.S. For perspective, the European ag powerhouse is approximately one-third the size of the state of Wisconsin.

But sweeping environmental policy change threatens to upend that productivity, along with the lives and livelihoods of the farmers who make it happen. In December 2021, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency released a 13-year, 25-billion-euro plan to cut nitrogen oxide and ammonia emissions by 50% by 2030.

The Netherlands currently has the highest density of livestock in Europe, with more than four times the food animal population of the UK or France.

The plan in its current state would reduce the Netherlands’ population of cattle, pigs, and poultry by roughly 30% . The potential methods of doing so include voluntary buy-outs, relocation, and even expropriation – forced sale of emission rights and even land itself to the state.

Dutch farmers are asking for more time and assistance in adopting emission-reducing technologies, rather than culling animals or shuttering farms altogether. Many also believe agriculture is being targeted disproportionately compared to other industries. And they view the threat of expropriation as a bad-faith act of government overreach, motivated by the government’s desire to acquire high-priced Dutch farmland cheaply .

Farmers have taken their frustrations to the streets by blocking highways, storming a provincial assembly and driving a caravan of tractors into the heart of the country’s administrative and royal capitol city, The Hague. The protests have ensued for nearly three years, with a massive “freedom convoy” of trucks, tractors, and other farm implements currently rolling across the country.