European feed manufacturers (Fefac) President Patrick Vanden Avenne called on the EU Farm Council Presidency to take urgent measures at the Farm Council meeting today to prevent the collapse of the EU pig market. “The current market situation of the EU livestock sector is extremely worrying. In particular the EU pig sector is facing a near market collapse,” Vanden Avenne said. A key reason for this situation lies in particular in the rising cost for feed grains, which have recently reached the levels of 2007/2008, resulting from global demand outpacing supplies of feed grains. The current market crisis has been further exacerbated by the knock-on effects of the dioxin incident in Germany leading to a drastic fall in domestic consumption and temporary closure of some important export markets for German pork. In the meantime, however, market experts anticipate that the present tension on the EU and global cereals markets may grow further before the end of the marketing year due to rising global competition for scarce feed grain supplies. “In the light of the exceptional market situation we therefore urge the EU Farm Council to ease market access to the supply of competitive feed grains on the EU by suspending the import duties for all cereals as in 2007,” Vanden Avenne said. He also said that Fefac fully supports the request of the European farmers and cooperatives, united in Copa-Cogeca, to open the private storage mechanism for pork in order to facilitate the short-term stabilisation of the EU pig market.