Supply decreased noticeably

The domestic supply of slaughter lambs was very limited last month. This contrasted with brisk demand at the wholesale meat markets, particularly during Holy Week; existing stocks could be completely reduced. Buyers had to invest more for good qualities, which were comparatively scarce, and for preferred cuts. Overall, however, price movements remained within comparatively narrow limits. In the second half of the month, interest in lamb waned, with price drops here and there.

In April, producers received an average of EUR 4,04 per kilogram of slaughter weight for lambs billed at a flat rate, which was three cents more than in the previous month. However, the comparable previous year's revenues were still missed by seven cents. The notifiable slaughterhouses accounted for around 1.390 lambs and sheep per week, partly on a flat-rate basis, partly according to commercial grades; that was almost 13 percent less than in the previous month. The offer from April 2003 was even undercut by around a fifth.

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Turkey meat is catching up

 In Austria, the signs on the poultry market point to growth. In the first quarter of this year, poultry meat slaughtered totaled 26.540 tons, up 7,5 percent from the first three months of 2003.

In the turkey market in particular, there was a significant increase in production: at almost 6.400 tons, the slaughterings from January to March of this year were almost 18 percent higher than the corresponding result for the previous year. This means that almost a quarter of all poultry slaughtered in Austria was in the turkey sector.

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Higher slaughter cow prices

Easter at the beginning of last month was not particularly noticeable on the European agricultural markets. On the egg market, prices even fell drastically due to often only moderate demand. Young bulls and pigs for slaughter were also rated lower on average than in the previous month. There were only surcharges for slaughter cows. Chicken and turkey prices changed little. A reduced supply of raw milk provided some relief on the dairy markets. Slaughter cattle and slaughter pigs

The supply of beef for slaughter in April was significantly smaller than a month earlier. Around twelve percent fewer cattle were slaughtered in Denmark, in Germany the deficit was a good eleven percent and in Holland as much as 15 percent. In most countries, however, more animals were available than a year ago. For young bulls in the R3 trading class, producers achieved an average of around 271 euros per 100 kilograms slaughter weight in the EU, which is around two euros less than in March. Listings in Germany, Spain and France fell the most, while surcharges were enforced in Ireland, Great Britain and the Netherlands.

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Information event on May 11th in Dresden

Commercials in the half-time break of a football game. For example, this is the best way for companies to reach consumers. The “Successful Sponsoring” study, in which 30 companies from the Saxon agriculture and food industry took part from June 2003 to April 2004, came to this and other interesting results. The CMA Centrale Marketing-Gesellschaft der Deutschen Agrarwirtschaft mbH, together with the Saxon State Ministry for the Environment and Agriculture, supported this initiative of the Saxon State Institute for Agriculture. The Chair of Marketing at the Technical University of Dresden put the project into practice. At the end of the project, the cooperation partners presented the results in detail and a guideline for practice on May 11, 2004 in Dresden.

How does sponsorship change the awareness and image of the sponsor? How can sponsorship commitments be organized efficiently? These were the questions at the beginning of the project. Since small and medium-sized companies in particular are hardly able to develop competitive advertising pressure through classic advertising, the study examined the extent to which sponsorship is a suitable marketing instrument. A total of 22 sponsorship commitments were evaluated and more than 4.000 consumers from the target group of the respective company were questioned. Saxon companies are involved, for example, in sports clubs, cultural events and city and children's festivals.

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CMA/DFV seminar trains executives in the butcher trade

"The contact to the employees forms the core of the managerial task," is the opinion of many personnel managers. There are many ways to successfully manage staff. The power and influence of good employee management are usually well known, but specific questions often arise as to how they are applied in day-to-day work. How can I involve employees in decisions without losing authority? How do I skillfully delegate tasks to employees and increase performance in the company? The CMA Centrale Marketing-Gesellschaft der Deutschen Agrarwirtschaft mbH and the DFV Deutscher Fleischerverband eV provide executives in the butchers' trade with answers to these and other questions in their two-day seminar "Improving management - increasing performance in the company" on June 30th and July 1st, 2004 in Leipzig .

The speaker Manfred Gerdemann, wholesale merchant for cattle and meat, butcher and business economist of the craft (FH), gives a practical overview of the different methods of employee management. To start with, he provides information about the connections between leadership and authority, the mobilization of performance reserves through motivation and the method of target agreement. Furthermore, Manfred Gerdemann deals with the technique of conducting a conversation. Whether it's a staff meeting or a routine discussion on sales development - with knowledge of a few psychological starting points and a tried-and-tested technique, the company goals can be explained and implemented more easily. In the second part of the seminar, the participants get to know new working methods in practical exercises. On the basis of the topics 'optimize personnel costs' and 'increase average sales' they try out their newly acquired knowledge. At the end of the seminar, the speaker deals with the conduct of critical discussions. What is to be considered? How motivated are employees to get to work after the interview? How can I improve performance with the critique?

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Against the myth of the loss of valuable ingredients

In most cases, the mineral and vitamin content of fruits and vegetables has not decreased over the past fifty years. Contrary to popular belief, fruit and vegetables are no less healthy than they used to be. This is shown by a study by Agroscope FAW Wädenswil, the Swiss Society for Nutrition and the Strickhof Vegetables Unit. 

The sodium content in pole beans has fallen to almost zero, and carrots contain 75 percent less magnesium than in the 40s, claimed the "Welt am Sonntag" on March 28, 03. The "Hörzu Special" (No. 01/1 ) reported that apples contain 97 percent less vitamin C. Such and similar reports have recently caused a sensation. The alleged wage decreases have been linked to agricultural intensification and depleted soils.

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So far, organic farming has received noticeably less support from the EU's common agricultural policy than conventional farming. This is the conclusion of the study "Organic farming and measures of European agricultural policy" in the scientific series "Organic Farming in Europe: Economics and Policy".

Together with scientists from several European countries, the Institute for Business Administration of the Federal Research Center for Agriculture (FAL) compared and evaluated the effects of measures from the first and second pillars of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on conventional and organic farming operations.

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The administrative court in Düsseldorf has granted the application of a compound feed manufacturer not to have to comply with the declaration of the percentage composition of its feed, which has been mandatory in Germany since July 1, 2004. The court justified this with the special know-how protection for the company's products, among other things. In addition, the obligation to declare percentages violates the principle of proportionality. According to the court ruling, the percentage does not result in any additional protection of the health and life of humans and animals, since all components of a compound feed already have to be specified today.

The release of the manufacturer from the obligation to declare applies until the admissibility of the provisions of the EU Directive 2002/2/EC has been clarified by the European Court of Justice. This directive prescribes the obligation to declare percentages. Great Britain had already obtained an “interim injunction” last year and filed a complaint with the ECJ. France, Italy, the Netherlands and Ireland have now also suspended implementation of the directive.

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Wait for clarification before the ECJ

The mandatory indication of the percentage composition of compound feed in Germany from July 1, 2004 should be suspended until the current legal confusion in the EU has been clarified. This was the demand made by the President of the German Association for Animal Nutrition (DVT), Ulrich Niemann, today at the association's annual press conference in Bonn.

"The percentage declaration does not provide the animal owner with any additional information compared to the current declaration, in which all individual components are specified in descending order according to weight," says Niemann. The enlightened animal owner has known for a long time that when determining the value of a compound feed, the ingredients, ie for example the specification of the energy or protein content, are decisive and not the fact whether a compound feed now contains 38 or 42 percent barley. For the manufacturer of a compound feed, on the other hand, the exact percentage of the individual components of his compound feed ultimately means the disclosure of company know-how. "Nobody would think of obliging Coca-Cola to disclose its recipe," the DVT President justified his position.

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Prices came under pressure

Slaughter pigs were mostly only just available to the local slaughter companies in the last weeks of April. The quantities offered could therefore usually be placed on the market without major problems. And the prices initially remained stable at a comparatively high level or were just able to hold their ground. Only towards the end of the month did the prices for slaughter pigs fall noticeably. The reason for this was the sluggish sales of pork on the wholesale markets. Here the demand sometimes left a lot to be desired; the hope for a growing interest in grillable items was not fulfilled due to the weather.

In April, fatteners earned an average of EUR 1,33 per kilogram slaughter weight for slaughter pigs in meat trading class E, which was six cents less than in the previous month, but still nine cents more than a year ago. On average for all trade classes E to P, the slaughterhouses also paid 1,28 euros per kilogram, six cents less than in March, but this exceeded the level of April 2003 by eight cents.

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Harmonization of the survey at EU level

 On April 26th and 27th, 2004, 100 experts from all over Europe discussed approaches to improving the availability of data in organic farming at the first EISfOM conference (European Information Systems for Organic Markets) in Berlin. In addition to experts from organizations in the organic sector and national authorities, numerous representatives from the European Commission and the European statistical authority EUROSTAT as well as the FAO and OECD were also present. It turned out that the competent authorities are now very interested in statistical data on organic farming, but at the same time there is a considerable need for harmonization both at national and EU level.

The aim of the EISfOM project is to develop approaches for optimizing data collection systems at all levels of the production and marketing chain. The ZMP, as project partner and main organizer of the conference, was able to contribute its experience with data collection systems at various levels. The Directorate-General for Research of the EU Commission hopes that the project will provide important impetus, also with regard to the European action plan for organic farming. According to EUROSTAT's experience, not all member states provide data on all the information requested by the Commission due to the lack of reporting requirements. For example, there is also a lack of information on land use and animal husbandry in organic farming in Germany. From the end of 2004, EUROSTAT will make all available data, including older data, available on its website.

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