Reading Time: < 1 minute Sofia | Reuters –– Bulgaria has told the European Union it will ban the cultivation of crops with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) under EU rules that allow member states to opt out of GMO cultivation, the agriculture ministry said in a statement on Thursday. “The agriculture ministry upholds its position that Bulgaria should be free […] Read more
Bulgaria opts out of growing GM crops
France bolsters ban on genetically modified crops
Reading Time: 2 minutes Paris | Reuters — France is to use a new European opt-out scheme to ensure a ban on the cultivation of genetically modified crops in the country remains in place, it said on Thursday. The European Union’s largest grain grower and exporter has asked the European Commission for France to be excluded from some GM […] Read more
EU dairy farmers get rude awakening in post-quota market
Reading Time: 2 minutes Paris | Reuters — European dairy farmers caught out by a global market decline as they emerge from a 30-year-old quota system may have little choice but to produce at full pelt, hoping for a recovery in international prices next year. Milk prices paid to EU farmers are down 20 per cent from last year […] Read more
Baking, parched fields set to trim EU wheat harvest
Reading Time: 2 minutes Paris | Reuters — A heatwave in Western Europe is adding to stress on wheat crops after a dry end to spring and reducing what had been very high yield potential only a month ago. Record temperatures for early July at around 40 C in parts of France unnerved traders in the European Union’s top […] Read more
Russia may allow food imports from three EU states
Reading Time: 2 minutes Moscow | Reuters –– Russia may allow around 20 firms from Hungary, Cyprus and Greece to return to its market after it orders the lifting of an embargo on food imports from the European Union, Interfax news agency quoted a senior official as saying on Tuesday. Russia banned foods from the 28-nation EU last year […] Read more
Greece wants Canada-EU pact changed to protect ‘feta’ name
Reading Time: 2 minutes Brussels | Reuters — Athens will not back a multi-billion dollar trade pact between Canada and the European Union unless the deal is changed to specify that only Greece can use the term “feta” for its salty white cheese, according to a document seen by Reuters. After five years of difficult negotiations, Canada and the […] Read more
EU moves to stop spread of ‘olive tree leprosy’
Reading Time: < 1 minute Brussels | Reuters –– EU governments backed on Tuesday new measures to stop the spread of a bacterial disease that has attacked Italy’s olive oil production, the European Commission said. The new measures mean EU countries must reveal all outbreaks in the European Union, carry out official surveys and destroy all infested plants, as well […] Read more
EU lifts wheat, barley, rapeseed yield outlook
Reading Time: 2 minutes Paris | Reuters — The European Union’s crop monitoring service on Monday lifted its yield forecasts for this year’s soft wheat, barley and rapeseed harvests with growing conditions remaining mostly favourable despite a recent dry spell. Yields will stay below levels seen in 2014, when the EU posted record production in several crops, but exceed […] Read more
EU approves first new genetically modified crops since 2013
Reading Time: 2 minutes Brussels | Reuters –– The European Union cleared the import of 10 new types of genetically modified crops and two more kinds of cut flowers on Friday, its first authorizations in more than a year after a review of its blocked approval process. The European Commission said it had authorized 10 new types of maize, […] Read more
EU proposes GM opt-out for members, angers pro- and anti-GM camps
Reading Time: 2 minutes Brussels | Reuters — The European Commission proposed on Wednesday a new law allowing individual EU countries to restrict or prohibit imported genetically modified crops even if they have been approved by the bloc as a whole. The proposal covering GM crops in human food and animal feed upset trading partners, notably the U.S., which […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
