DFV President Dohrmann with Minister Meyer in Hanover
Frankfurt am Main, July 17, 2017. A detailed interview by Lower Saxony's Agriculture Minister Christian Meyer in the afz and a counter-speech formulated as an open letter by DFV President Herbert Dohrmann in the same place: Now both sides have met in Hanover for a personal conversation. The minister also promised to examine fee reductions for the butcher trade.
It's about regionality and maintaining structures that ensure that consumers are supplied with local food. In the articles in the afz, major differences have become clear as to how this goal can be achieved. The German Butchers' Association could not share the very positive picture of its policy that the minister drew in the interview. In particular, the additional and unfairly distributed fees and the wrong use of funding were criticized.
In Hanover, there was now a detailed exchange between Minister Meyer and his department heads on the one hand and DFV President Herbert Dohrmann and DFV General Manager Martin Fuchs on the other. Dohrmann made the main points of criticism of the butcher's trade clear again.
The different perspectives were most evident when it came to fees. While the Ministry speaks of burdens that are negligible because of the low level, the DFV sees a fact here that goes far beyond a mere annoyance. From the point of view of the association, the additional fees for the regular food inspections represent a disproportionate burden on the craft businesses. On the one hand, the additional effort must be seen in the context of the overall burden and on the other hand it is unfairly distributed. Although the fees for small businesses are lower than for large ones, the picture is very different in relation to the turnover and earning power of small family businesses.
The same applies to the meat inspection fees. The DFV representatives complained about the graduated fees, which mean that large slaughterhouse companies receive a further competitive advantage through the state fee policy. Here the minister agrees to examine simplifications for artisanal slaughterhouses in the next legislative period. Although the law on fees does not allow for a "uniform fee" for meat inspection, a financial subsidy from the state to the municipalities with the purpose of relieving small businesses would be quite conceivable.
The topic of the exchange was also the targeted promotion of regional structures. The butcher's trade has long complained that, outside of agriculture, too little is being done to maintain functioning regional cycles. Instead, programs are launched that promote costly measures to halfway replace what was lost. In this context, the minister referred to an ongoing support program for small companies in the food industry, which could count on grants for investments. In addition, another funding program is currently being launched that promises subsidies for the smallest companies, regardless of the industry. The ministry and association agreed to jointly provide detailed information about these state programs.
