The European Union, traditionally a major cereal exporter, on Thursday suspended imports duties on most cereals to ease tight supplies. The unanimous agreement by ministers of the 27 EU member states covers all cereals except oats, buckwheat and millet for the current marketing year, which ends in July.
The measure is one of several actions the EU is taking in response to the tight cereals market along with suspending a requirement that farmers leave some land fallow each year.
"Suspending import duties will facilitate cereals imports from outside the EU and take some of the pressure off European grain markets," said EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel. "We have now had two low European harvests in a row and prices are high both at home and on world markets," she added.
The decision, proposed last month by the European Commission, is "a reaction to the exceptionally tight situation on the world and EU cereals markets and the record price levels," the EU's executive arm said in a statement.
For years, Europe has produced more cereals than it needs, leaving the EU to buy up the excess and discourage more planting in order to stop prices collapsing and farmers going out of business. But Europe became a net importer of cereals this year amid a global commodities boom, driven by surging demand in fast-growing developing countries including China.