Workshop on the medium-term outlook for the EU agricultural commodity market

The aim of the expert workshop "Medium-term outlook for the EU agricultural commodity market", held in October 2015 in Brussels, was to present and discuss the preliminary results of the outlook of the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) on European Union (EU) agricultural market developments. Participants included high-level policy makers and modelling and market experts and the workshop provided a forum in which to present and discuss recent and projected developments in the EU agricultural and commodity markets, and to outline the reasons behind observed and prospective developments. This year, the "Medium-term outlook for the EU agricultural commodity market" workshop included a special focus on the impact, on agricultural markets, of macroeconomic variables, such as changes in the euro exchange rate, changes in the Brent crude oil price and changes in animal food consumption in China. This document summarises the presentations and discussions on the macroeconomic and energy assumptions associated with this outlook, and on each of the EU agricultural markets addressed, namely the biofuel market, the arable crop market, the sugar market, the milk and dairy market, and the meat market. To conclude, the development of agricultural income in the EU is discussed and, finally, a special section on agricultural market developments in China is presented.