Veränderung der Wettbewerbsstellung von Getreidesubstituten

Markets for cereals and (other) feed components in Germany have undergone considerable changes during the last two decades. While the CAP, from its very beginning in 1967, has always favoured domestic grain production by relatively high and stable prices, even the later efforts to restrain surpluses by means of co-responsibility and maximum guarantee quantities proved more or less futile: The price advantage for using cereal substitutes in feed rations remained unchallenged. Thus, it was not prior to the CAP reform of 1992 that competition between cereals and cereals substitutes was put on a new basis. Due to lower prices, the feed use of cereals was stimulated to the detriment of substitutes. The quantity changes which are well documented in the annual feed balances of national and EU statistical offices also show up in the development of prices and price ratios: Comparing wheat and barley prices with a weighted average of prices for an equivalent mix of energy and protein rich feed components provides results which show that during the first months of 1998, (imported) cereal substitutes have again improved their competitive position as against (domestic) cereals - this is true at least for those regions having low transport costs from international ports.