Co-ops' call to relaunch the F&V industry

Co-ops from the three major f&v producing Countries - Italy, France and Spain - presented to the EU Parliament a paper with proposals to fight the crisis in the fresh produce industry.

 

The downturn of the fresh produce industry all around Europe has pushed the representatives of Spanish, Italian and French co-ops to ask the European Parliament (Agriculture Committee) to keep focusing on the sector by supporting it with a proper budget also after 2013 as well as backing up Producers' Organizations. 

 

The three countries - whose production account for 76% of the entire EU output of fruit, and 64% of vegetables - presented a paper yesterday, November 10, to the EU Agriculture Committee.

 

The co-ops requests included that a Common Market Organization (CMO) for fruit and vegetables is preserved also after 2013, with a specific budget to finance aids to Producers' Organizations and Operational Schemes; that the prevention and crisis management tools within the CMO are adapted and improved in view of the 2010 campaign; that a EU "serious crises management system" is outlined in order to ensure the producers' incomes. 

 

According to Davide Vernocchi, president of the fresh produce sector of Italy's Fedagri-Confcooperative, "growers and their cooperatives have to strengthen both in terms of size and competitiveness in order to face a market where the demand is more and more concentrated". 

 

Other specific proposals concerned the preservation of EU marketing standards, the improvement of export conditions, opposition to imports liberalization, the need for EU measures in order to avoid marketing abuses and make large retailers more responsible, with the final goal of ensuring the coverage of production costs to the growers, Gianluca Balzani of Legacoop-Agrifood.