Potato sector’s chipping away fails to gain government support
The Government is brushing away grower concerns about a looming potato invasion from the European Union.
The New York Times investigation of nine countries during much of 2019 uncovered a subsidy system that is deliberately opaque, grossly undermines the EU’s environmental goals and is warped by corruption and self-dealing.
Every year, the 28-country EU pays out $65 billion in farm subsidies intended to support farmers around Europe and keep rural communities alive. But across Hungary and much of central and eastern Europe the bulk of the cash goes to a connected and powerful few.
For example, the prime minister of the Czech Republic collected tens of millions of dollars in subsidies just last year.
And we think NZ will get a free trade deal with the EU. Ha ha!
