Joint Press Release 

Following its launch on 23 April 2018, the EU Code of Conduct on Agricultural Data Sharing has now received the support of two additional international federations: Centre de Liaison International des Marchands de Machines Agricoles et des Reperateurs (CLIMMAR) and AnimalhealthEurope. One year after its release, the EU Code of Conduct on Agricultural Data Sharing has been accepted and signed by over ten key European agricultural sector organisations. All signatories are convinced of the importance of setting transparent principles and guidelines to support the development of digital farming, which demonstrates the need for increased data sharing in agriculture.

To fully benefit from digital farming, data must be shared between all partners in the agri-food chain in a fair and transparent way. This Code of Conduct, designed in 2018, aims to promote the benefits of sharing data and enabling agri-business models, including agri-cooperatives and other agri-businesses, to swiftly move into an era of digitally enhanced farming. The Code of Conduct explains contractual relations and provides guidance on the use of agricultural data, particularly on the rights of access and use of the data.

All signatories of the Code of Conduct recognise the need to grant the data originator a leading role in controlling access to and the use of data. The guidelines also underline that the right to determine who can access and use the data should be granted to the data originator. In practice this means that the rights to data collected on the farm or during farming operations are granted to the farmer and may be used as he or she sees fit. 

So far, Copa and Cogeca, CEMA, Fertilizers Europe, CEETTAR, CEJA, ECPA, EFFAB, FEFAC, ESA have agreed to sign the contractual arrangement which is part of this Code of Conduct. CLIMMAR and AnimalhealthEurope, which represent the agricultural machinery and equipment dealers and the manufacturers of animal medicines and health products respectively, have decided to show their support by becoming the latest signatories of the Code of Conduct.

CLIMMAR representative, Gerard Heerink said “The Code of Conduct is of the utmost importance to the European agricultural machinery and equipment dealers because it stimulates and supports the transparency of access and use of data by the different key players in the agricultural food chain and therefore contributes to the development of smart sustainable farming”.

“There is huge potential for current and emerging smart technology to improve our ability to spot and treat animal illness before it becomes a full-blown outbreak that can cost the lives of potentially thousands of animals, and completely devastate a farmer’s livelihood. Detecting early signs of illness through continuous livestock monitoring upholds welfare standards by measuring animals’ vital signs consistently and objectively throughout their entire lives to pick up on the first sign of any change. This in turn helps to keep farms disease-free and protects our food supply, as well as maximising efficiency of feed and other resources.” said Roxane Feller, Secretary General at AnimalhealthEurope.

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About the EU Code of Conduct: Download the full EU Code of Conduct on Agricultural Data Sharing HERE