Trade day showcases EU dairy
Image: EDA
The main highlight of the European Dairy Association’s recent trade day was shared optimism, underlined by the fact that European trade in agricultural products is booming since 2022 was again a great year, the organisation says. It gathered speakers from the European Commission, representatives from some of the EU’s main trading partners and around 30 EDA trade exports in Brussels.
The EU was for the tenth year in a row the biggest exporter in agri-food products, dairy remains one of the flagship sectors when it comes to economic performance. EU dairy contributed €17 billion to the EU’s positive trade surplus.
The consensus during the trade day was then marked by a positive attitude towards international trade and the need to keep trade barriers to a minimum. Good trade arrangements in combination with the guaranteed high quality of EU dairy products and global demographic developments will ensure a bright future for our EU dairy sector.
The notion of sustainability has entered and taken root in the international trading realm: it is there to stay. The upcoming challenge will be the support of EU milk production, since we see that more sustainable production comes at a price, be it a financial cost or reduced productivity. There is a need to convince trading partners that sustainable production is in the global interest. There seems to be a risk that commitments by third countries within the sustainability chapters may be traded off against EU market access concession, the EDA says.