Summary of newsmakers of the previous day – 14.3.2008

Bluetongue causes high looses

Catarrhal sheep fever requested huge financial sums for compensation of damaged breeders in Northern Rhineland-Westphalia (NRW). A treasury of veterinary infections of NRW paid approximately 10,4 mil. EUR till the end of February as a compensation of sheep and cattle breeders for died or obligatorily slaughtered animals because of the disease bluetongue. As the Agricultural Chamber of NRW announced now, a half of the money was covered from means of the veterinary infection treasury and a half from means of the federal country NRW. Real economic damages which were caused by the catarrhal fever of sheep are much higher; especially it is dealt with damages caused by limitation of business activities.

COOP bets on bio-foods

The Union of Czech and Moravian Consumption Cooperatives, which are covered by a common mark COOP, unified in a spirit of rebranding the appearance of its shops. Shops which concentrate on a support of inland suppliers from the last year end also reflect the present trend of enlarging interest in bio-foods. COOP stores bet the same as other trade chains on raising popularity of bio-products. Thanks to dense network of its shops it can offer organic foods to big ger amount of people. At presence it has available an assortment of about 50 kinds of bio-products in 372 shops which makes a seller with the biggest number of bio-shops from the group.

European Parliament requires better flexibility in frame of CAP reform

A report of the European Parliament on a Commission’s proposal for a reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) says that member states need more flexibility in decision making on direct help so that it was possible to ensure security network in case of a big crisis. “Agricultural structures in Europe are very different. Not all problems can be solved by use of one measure”, a Parliamentary reporter, a German representative Lutz Göpel (APP-ED) presented. For this reasons the Parliament wants to introduce a new flexible tool of CAP which would “support local sectors and create basic safety quarantees and risk management in case of crisis”.

Beware of bears

Brown bears and even a she-bear with her two cubs in Brno’s ZOO have woken up from winter sleep. However, they are not danger for people because they live in a secured yard. Meeting with bears living in the Tatra Mountains or Pyrenees or in other places of Europe can be much more annoying. They are naturally timid, nevertheless, it can not be hold in hungry animals after winter sleep. Spring tourists should be careful of it in there areas.