NGOs have described EU agricultural export subsidies as inconsistent with a recent €14 billion commitment by the Group of Eight (G8) countries to assisting farmers in developing countries, aimed at combating world hunger and promoting agricultural development.

The world’s eight leading industrialised countries promised the sum to assist farmers in developing countries over the next three years, reaching an agreement at the G8 summit in L’Aquila, Italy last week.

The deal was welcomed by some NGOs, who see it as a step forward in rich nations’ commitment to increasing agricultural capacity in developing countries and ensuring food security for the world’s poorest people.

But the announcement also triggered fresh criticism of the EU, which was described as obstructing those aims. EU farm policy is charged with undermining agricultural development in the countries of the global south, whose farmers are struggling to compete with well-subsidised EU agriculture.

International faith-based organisations Cidse and Aprodev say an immediate end to export subsidies is necessary because they handicap farmers in developing countries, whilst providing little benefit for European farmers since their reintroduction in January 2009.

Despite this, the European Commission decided to allocate €449 million to subsidising the export of dairy products in 2010. France and Germany are at the forefront of calls for maintaining subsidies to European farmers, as the countries which most obviously benefit from them. Speaking about reform of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), due after 2013, French Farm Minister Bruno Le Maire stated: “Our main political objective must be to guarantee stable and decent revenue for [European] farmers.”

Aprodev insists that the EU needs to pursue more coherent food-security and agricultural policies. “The introduction of export subsidies contradicts the G8’s call for a more food-secure world through particular attention to small-scale farming and local market development. On the contrary, it threatens to reinforce poor countries’ dependency on cheap food imports,” said Aprodev’s Karin Ulmer.

The European Commission responded by stressing that the EU has proposed to eliminate export subsidies altogether by 2013, and by repeating its strong commitment to the aims of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The EU is already the world’s largest importer of food and the biggest market for foodstuffs from developing countries. The bloc is pushing for wider international reforms of subsidies as part of concluding the Doha Round of trade negotiations at the World Trade Organisation.