- cross-posted to:
- europe@feddit.org
- globalnews@lemmy.zip
- cross-posted to:
- europe@feddit.org
- globalnews@lemmy.zip
Summary
Finland has declined a U.S. request to export eggs amid a severe American shortage caused by bird flu.
The Finnish Poultry Association cited the lack of prior trade agreements and complex regulatory hurdles. Even if exports were possible, Finland’s limited egg production would not significantly impact the U.S. crisis.
Other European nations, including Sweden and Denmark, also face difficulties meeting U.S. demand, while Europe grapples with its own egg shortages.
The U.S. has turned to countries like Turkey and the Netherlands for supplies as bird flu remains a global issue.
We have the Common Agricultural Policy which has the quadruple goals of a) keeping the EU, on aggregate, self-reliant while b) simultaneously stabilising domestic production with subsidies because technically it would be cheaper for many producers to buy land abroad and then import, c) avoid crashing other region’s agricultural sector with hyper-efficient production, that’s why occasionally there’s production caps in place, and finally d) environmental and animal husbandry concerns. You can actually get money for letting land fall fallow and stuff, there’s all kinds of fine-grained subsidies when it comes to things like improving barns, it’s a whole shebang.
Just checked and eggs were never subject to production quota regulations, so (aside from product safety and animal husbandry rules) it’s a pretty open market. The pdf linked there shows that we’re massive exporters, notable exception is imports from Ukraine though those are nowhere close to massive. Eyeball-comparing egg production vs. population numbers and assuming every member states eats about as many eggs/capita as the other things look well distributed, DE, FR, NL, PL, ES, and IT over-produce but it’s not like the smaller countries would have no capacity at all. Ukraine would actually fit in with that, also big country, also net exporter.
Overall we have exactly one shortfall: Protein crops. Mostly animal fodder in the form of South American soy, the rest, much smaller portion, is Canadian lentils. Not a desirable situation overall but one the one hand it’s not critical to feeding people (though there’d suddenly be much less meat) and South America really likes the income so the commission is in no hurry to address it. Canada just simply seems to be made for growing lentils, lots of right climate and soils for it, and that in wide flat areas.