Agriculture minister Piet Adema calls it ‘quite exciting’ whether there will be an agricultural agreement in the coming weeks. He does hope that there will be a negotiation result, but that will not be until mid-May at the earliest, is the expectation.
‘We are still quite far apart on a number of themes.’ According to Adema, it is not about nitrogen, but rather other subjects that are important to farmers, such as rules on manure and soil and agreements with chain parties such as supermarkets and animal feed companies. Incidentally, lobby organization LTO has said that it will not sign the agreement if the nitrogen policy is not amended.
The minister of agriculture therefore seems to be anticipating a ‘negotiation result without a signature’. The agreements will then ‘stay on the shelf, and then we will see what happens next’. His commitment is still to reach an agreement. If there is indeed a negotiation result without the signature of some or all parties, the cabinet, farmers and other organizations can already start working on certain points, according to Adema.
