Neighbors' Different Agricultural Model Reflects in Food Selection (7)

Published: 26.07.2012 10:21

Photo: Postimees/Scanpix

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Small farming is better off in Latvia due to government policy in that country, and as a result, Estonia's southern neighbor has more variety to offer consumers in some parts of the shopping basket, according to a comparison published in Postimees.

Latvia has a greater variety of local beer and milk, while Estonia's product selection in these areas tends to be clustered at opposite ends of the spectrum - fairly homogenous brands from major companies and a handful of organic entries from micro-producers. Latvia has more products from medium-size agricultural producers.

For example, there are no producers of unpasteurized beer in Estonia and the market is split up between two large and one smaller brewer. Latvia has 12 breweries. Agricultural policy is behind the beer situation as well - unlike Estonia, Latvia decided to allow alcoholic beverage producers to be eligible for investment measures under their rural development plan.

With regard to milk, small dairies and cattle herds are hard to find in Estonia, while small Latvian dairy farmers are said to have little problem finding large dairies to come around and collect their output.

On the other hand, the selection of meat products and bread in Estonia can certainly not be criticized, Postimees noted.

A total of 64,200 farms apply for direct subsidies from the implementing agency in Latvia, compared to a figure of 16,800 in Estonia. The average farm in Latvia has half the area of its Estonian counterparts.

The difference had become great already in the years before the EU, suggesting that it stemmed from policy practiced in the period from 1991-2004.

Deputy state secretary Aivars Lapins told the paper that the roots of the food selection lie in the country's different views of economics: Estonia is a believer in economy of scale when it comes to production and a more liberal approach to subsidies.

 


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Comments (7)

  • fan

    26.07.2012 10:38

    Estonia needs to offers at least some variety in the vegetables! People not interested in the vast variety of meat are left with only option to buy potatoes or cabbage!

  • avatar

    knut_albers

    26.07.2012 11:06

    According to Eurostat, the amount of farms in Estonia declined by 46.6% between 2003 and 2010 and is the highest drop among EU27, followed by Bulgaria with a loss of 44.2% of farms and Latvia with a 34.4% decline. The average decline in EU27 is 19.8%, with Sweden and Matla as the only states with a surplus (4.4% and 17.4%).

  • @knut

    26.07.2012 13:45

    The number of farms is immaterial. It's the number of hectares under cultivation that matters. What are the stats for that? The answer will give a clearer picture of what is going on in the agricultural sector.

  • avatar

    knut_albers

    26.07.2012 15:46

    This article is about "Food Selection" by the means of variety of offers towards consumers. Hence, the number of farms is of signifigance, as less farms means fewer competing businesses that typically bring forward tendencies of monoculture. Consumers are even supporting the lack of choices through subsidies of the European Union, paid by European taxpayers. Agricultural Subsidies are EU's biggest cost unit, but the money does not go to SME (Small or Medium Enterprise) farmers, but in majority to large agro-industrial enterprises who actually don't need them, simply because the calculations are based on per hectar, and here indeed the number of hectares owned by a farmer come into play. The best the EU can do is to cap subsidies for large farms and instead support active farmers and small farms, or to better cut down the subsidies alltogether that would mean higher prices at the supermarkets, but less taxes to be paid to corporations who privatize profits, but socialize losses through these subsidies for giving less choices towards consumers.

  • CAP

    26.07.2012 19:23

    Knut do you have any idea what you are talking about? All is somewhat half truth and hearsay. This is not the place to elaborate the system of subsidies from EU but just a few keywords for you to google: Modulation, Decopling, Cross compliance.

  • avatar

    knut_albers

    26.07.2012 20:56

    "What are the stats for that? The answer will give a clearer picture of what is going on in the agricultural sector." To direclty answer you that as well, the total hectar of land used for agriculture within EU 27 dropped by just 2 percent within the same period mentioned above. Well, I don't have specific numbers for Estonia on file now, but the basic conclusion is that large agro-industrial enterprises take over the SME farmers, and what we should understand here is that this is not due to market forces, but the system of EU agricultural subsidies is causing these effects, because the distribution is causing distortions in these markets by favoring theses large enterprises and the program is consequently paying less out than what people put in because it goes to enterprizes who don't need the subsidies in the first place. We need to understand that the current system of subsidies is the problem, which consumers feel by having less and less consumer choices at the groceries each day, by higher tax rates and also by an excessive rural depopulation. And that is why I am against EU subsidies in the first place, not because I want to score off the Estonias, but because the system is just unfair and unjust, causing disadvantages especially to the Estonian economy, because this small country is not able to compete with highly subsidised large enterprises in, say, Poland for example, because they can always underbid Estonian offers by having a multiple amount of hectars subsidised Estonian enterprises could never have. There is just not enough hectars available for that.

  • Mart Mang

    27.07.2012 00:22

    Sorry to burst your fizzy bubbles but beer isn't a food. Wait! This is Estonia we're talking about...never mind...