First of all, we would like to warmly welcome you to Finland. Your visit comes at an important moment for European food production and animal health. We appreciate the Commission’s enforcement action on imports from Brazil: applying the Union’s rules on antimicrobial use to imported products is precisely the reciprocity European farmers need. 

Finnish farmers and forest owners strongly support the One Health approach. Finland has long invested in preventive animal health, farm biosecurity, disease surveillance and the sustainable use of plant protection products. The result is a high animal health status and antimicrobial and plant protection product use among the lowest in Europe. 

That status is now being tested. African swine fever was confirmed in wild boar at Virolahti on 30 July 2026, the first detection in Finnish history. No commercial farms have been affected, and the majority of pig production lies hundreds of kilometres away, yet Finland lost its disease-free status and exports to third countries were halted. Regionalisation works inside the single market and carries almost no weight outside it. We ask DG SANTE to put its veterinary expertise behind DG TRADE in securing advance recognition of regionalisation in third-country certificates, with China as the priority case, and to co-finance wild boar management. 

Finland pioneering in farm animal welfare and health, MTK and SLC support modernising EU animal welfare legislation, provided it remains science-based, proportionate and focused on measurable outcomes rather than prescribed housing systems. Member States that have already invested should be recognised, not penalised. A Union-wide prohibition on installing new farrowing cages, together with an enforced ban on pig tail docking, would level the playing field while allowing existing installations to run to the end of their technical life. For male day-old chicks, there should be no strict rule to enforce in-ovo sexing, but also openness to their recycling as feed. 

Plant protection deserves the same proportionality. Active substances are withdrawn faster than alternatives are authorised, and no company registers a product for a market the size of Finland’s. Northern growing conditions and minor uses need a practical route to authorisation, or withdrawals become de facto bans on the crops themselves. 

We also welcome the conclusion of the legislative process on new genomic techniques; the focus must now be implementation, and Horizon Europe funding should reflect that, particularly for climate adaptation in agriculture and forestry. Research is equally needed on the safety of recycled fertilisers, so that nutrients recovered from municipal sewage sludge can be used with confidence and without risk to food safety, soil health or consumer trust. 

Prevention is the most effective route to better welfare and lower antimicrobial use, and it needs financing. Finland’s CAP animal welfare compensation reaches almost all supported livestock units, and we intend to use the same instrument for improving farm biosecurity — which requires that it survives into the next financing period. Prevention must also mean vaccination: a framework in which vaccinating costs a Member State its disease-free status discourages the very prevention the Commission seeks. 

Finally, European standards on animal health, animal welfare, food safety, plant protection and antimicrobial use must be reflected in the Union’s trade policy. Finland stands ready to contribute its experience, and we look forward to discussing these issues with you during your visit. 

Finnish farmers’ TOP 11 messages for Commissioner Várhelyi’s visit, 3 September 2026 

• Ban new farrowing cages — ban building, not using. Prohibit building new farrowing cages across the Union now and let existing units run to the end of their technical life. Finland legislated exactly this in 2024. It bites faster than a distant use deadline and does not force farmers to pay twice. 

• Prohibit tail docking of pigs. Routine docking remains standard in most Member States despite the existing EU rule. Finnish pigs have kept their tails for two decades; an enforced prohibition removes the disadvantage borne by those who already comply. 

• Let prevention mean vaccination. DIVA-capable vaccines and adequate surveillance should let a Member State vaccinate without losing its freedom status or its trade guarantees — for Newcastle disease, for HPAI, and for ASF when a vaccine arrives. 

• End male chick culling by outcome, not by method. Set the objective and let operators reach it through in-ovo sexing, use as feed, or a combination. Single-hatchery Member States need investment support: the machine is indivisible and its cost cannot be spread over a small national volume. Day-zero sexing would put the eggs into the human food chain and reverse the economics entirely. 

• Maintain production in sparsely populated areas. Long distances, small animal populations, and efficient slaughterhouses together mean that we sometimes need long live animal transportation, sometimes in cold conditions. It should still be possible in the future. 

• Keep a workable plant protection toolbox. Active substances are being withdrawn faster than alternatives are authorised, and no company registers a product for a market the size of Finland’s. Northern growing conditions and minor uses need a practical route to authorisation, or the withdrawals become de facto bans on the crops themselves. 

• Use the CAP for biosecurity. Finland’s animal welfare compensation reaches almost all of the livestock units supported under its Strategic Plan — proof that outcome-based requirements work when they are financed. The same instrument should finance farm biosecurity in 2028–2034. 

• Make regionalisation work outside the EU. Three infected wild boar closed third-country markets for producers 500 km away. Regionalisation must be negotiated in advance and written into third-country certificates, with China as the priority case. DG SANTE holds the veterinary expertise that makes this negotiable. 

• Equivalent standards for imports. European farmers cannot be held to rising requirements while imported products are produced below them. Without reciprocity, the welfare reform relocates production outside the Union rather than improving it. 

• Fund climate adaptation through plant breeding. Horizon Europe should direct research money to developing the traits that decide whether northern production survives the next decades: pest resistance, tolerance of drought, waterlogging and heat, and resistance to the plant diseases moving north with the climate. Now that the legislation on new genomic techniques has been concluded, NGTs are the fastest route to those traits — and implementation needs research funding behind it, not only a legal framework. 

• Make recycled fertilisers usable. Horizon Europe research is needed on the safety and cleanliness of nutrients recovered from municipal sewage sludge. Closing the nutrient loop depends on farmers being able to apply recycled fertilisers with confidence, without risk to food safety, soil health or consumer trust.