The role that EU agriculture plays in feeding a growing global population looks set to weaken over the next 10 years as key sectors are expected to see a decline in production.

Beef, sheep and pigmeat all witnessed a drop in volumes across the EU in the decade up to now, with all three expected to witness an even steeper output decline in the years ahead in the European Commission’s latest agricultural outlook.

Dairy underwent volume expansion at EU-level since 2014, but the sector is to trend downwards out to 2035.

Poultry is the only sector forecast to see growth in the years ahead but even this growth will be at a rate slower than it had been over the previous 10 years.

The Commission’s outlook anticipates that these production hits will not majorly impact the EU’s self-sufficiency rates for farm commodities.

The outlook does, however, state that they will see the EU supplying a lower proportion of the volumes of agri-food commodities traded on international markets as competitors look to feed increased demand with supply.

“What we see according to our projections is that the EU will remain self-sufficient for most commodities and even those for which we are not self-sufficient at the moment, there is an outlook for a slight improvement,” the acting head of agri analysis and outlook in the Commission Bence Toth said last week when unveiling the figures.

“However, it is also true that if you put that in the overall perspective of the world outlook, basically the contribution of EU exports as a share of total global trade is actually shrinking, declining over time.

“This is a very important element to mention because taking the opportunity of growing world consumption is not fully exploited by the EU but we continue to produce high quality products.”