Brussels, 19/08/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 11 August, the European Commission announced that it was to introduce exceptional measures in favour of producers of peaches and nectarines, who are faced with constant declines in prices.
The mild spring weather led to record harvests, but the summer weather has discouraged consumers from eating these fruits, so that consumption is down. Last week, Russia's announcement of a total ban on exports of fresh food products from the EU further destabilised this market.
Rather than wait for prices to collapse completely, the European Agriculture Commissioner has announced exceptional measures. “Following the recent decline in prices on the peach and nectarine markets, urgent action is needed”, said Commissioner for Agriculture Dacian Ciolos, announcing “immediate, retroactive measures aimed at reducing supply and promoting demand”.
Withdrawals from the market. Amongst other things, the measures will increase from 5% to 10% the volume of fruits which can be withdrawn from the market and distributed free of charge.
Exceptional measures will also be taken to support individual producers. The formal decision will be taken in the near future, but it will apply retroactively from 11 August. The idea of taking these measures was “already under discussion last week, but the announcement of import restrictions by Russia risks to further aggravate the (peach and nectarine: Ed) market and has accelerated the need for action”, the Commission explains.
In the event of disturbances to a market, the common agriculture policy (CAP) allows the Commission to act fairly flexibly, drawing on a crisis reserve of €420 million a year, in order to regulate supply and demand.
Theoretically, the Russian ban jeopardises €5.2 billion of European exports of fruit and vegetables, meat and dairy products on the basis of 2013 figures. The Commission hopes that a large proportion of the sales can be redirected to other countries.
Every year, the EU produces around 2.5 million tonnes of peaches and 1.2 million tonnes of nectarines. The largest producers are Italy, Spain, France and Greece. These two harvests are the subject of bitter rivalry between France and Spain, following the strawberry harvest earlier in the year. The French producers suspect their Spanish neighbours of practising “commercial dumping” in order to kill off the French market. (LC)