The Grain Market în the EU

Cereal crops or grains are mostly grasses cultivated for their edible grains or fruit seeds (i.e., botanically a type of fruit called a caryopsis). Cereal grains are grown in greater quantities and provide more energy worldwide than any other type of crop; they are therefore staple crops. They are also a rich source of carbohydrate. In some developing nations, grain constitutes practically the entire diet of poor people. In developed nations, cereal consumption is more moderate but still substantial.

The word 'cereal' derives from 'Ceres', the name of the pre-Roman goddess of harvest and agriculture. Grains are traditionally called corn in the United Kingdom and Ireland, though that word became specified for maize in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.

Cereals include a wide range of annual crops of primary importance, such as wheat, barley, maize, rye, colza, sunflower, peas, etc. They cover 40% of the European Union's utilised agricultural area, and are found in all the Member States. Since 1992, they have been eligible for a hectare-based Community aid scheme which also includes "set-aside" measures for withdrawing land from cultivation. This system is the largest category of expenditure in the Union’s budget. As such, it features prominently in the reform of the CAP resulting from Agenda 2000.

In the cereals sector, internal prices are, on average, still higher than world prices. This makes it very hard to export European cereal crops and products processed from them without subsidies – the "refunds" which exporters receive

The 2007 agricultural year was marked by a very sharp and remarkable increase in the prices of many agricultural commodities in the EU and world markets. These rises in commodity prices concerned mainly crop and dairy products.

The latest report from the European Commission on the prospects for agricultural markets and incomes suggests an increase in returns to growers in the medium term and rising production. In 2010 production is projected to reach 293.6 million tonnes, rising to 305 million tonnes by 2014.

In 2007/08, the demand for cereals within the European Union is estimated to increase modestly in line with slightly higher seed use and human consumption and a moderate decrease in feed use. As regards livestock products, total meat consumption in 2007 rose slightly in the EU as a result of higher beef, pork and poultry meat demand (only sheep meat consumption was slightly lower than one year before). The strong domestic and world demand for dairy products, coupled with a limited (global) supply led to unprecedented price increases for dairy products (and especially milk powders) in 2007. Both EU and world dairy product prices were well above the 2006 levels throughout 2007