Brussels, 03/02/2005 (Agence Europe) - At a public hearing held in Brussels on Wednesday by the parliamentary committee on agriculture and rural development, fruit and vegetable sector professionals stressed the importance of the role of producer organisations, the need for tools to adapt supply to the demand of large-scale distribution, the urgent requirement to simplify rules and controls, and the need to promote the added value of European products and ensure greater coherence between Common Market Organisation (CMO) aid and funds available under rural development programmes. Discussions also highlighted the problem for European operators of third-country competition.
Like at the last debate of the Agriculture Council on this dossier (EUROPE of 19 October 2004), many people (experts and MEPs) took the floor to ask the European Commission for other crisis management instruments than simply withdrawing products. The Commission pointed out that it would present legislative proposals for the fruit and vegetable sector in a few months' time, together with a report on crisis management in the agricultural sector.
Speaking on behalf of the European Commission, Tomas Garcia-Azcarate presented the main elements of the communication of August 2004 on the assessment of how this CMO is working (EUROPE of 26 August 2004). The Commission is proposing that a single ceiling be brought in for fresh products, governing the community contribution to operating costs (4.1% of the value of the marketed production of each producer organisation). The Commission also proposes that the aid earmarked for processed products (tomatoes, pears and peaches), which was previously paid to the processors (depending on the final product and taking account of a minimum price system), be paid to producers in the future, channelled through producer organisations (with community and national processing thresholds).
Maria Esther Herranz Garcia (EPP-ED, Spain), EP rapporteur, felt that the proposals for fresh products were satisfactory, but called for additional measures for processed products, particularly that of finding outlets in case of overproduction. The rapporteur agreed with the European Commission that there is a need for a greater concentration of supply. On this, the President of the General Committee of Agricultural Cooperatives in the EU (COGECA), Eduardo Baamonde Noche, said that the “top 5” of large-scale distribution handle 50% of all fruit and vegetables sold in Europe. “We must pursue concentration of supply in order to boost the position of producers against mass distribution and the processing industry by promoting mergers, collaboration between producer organisations within a Member State and trans-national producer organisations. We must also promote the creation and development of producer groups in areas where the economic organisation of production is insufficient”, he explained.
Mr Baamonde also raised the issue of competition from third countries and preferential trade agreements which many countries enjoy. “European producers must focus on the added value of their products and demand that imported fruit and veg are in line with the standards and requirements of traceability and quality in force in the EU”, he said. MEPs from the new Member States, such as Witold Tomczak (ID, Poland) stressed that the production of soft fruits in their countries was suffering from competition from third countries, and that there should be more help to producers from the new countries to face up to this. The raisin sector has also been hit by competition from third countries, said Katerina Batzeli (EPP-ED, Greece), Diamanto Manolakou (GUE/NGL, Greece) and Ioannis Gklavakis (EPP-ED, Greece).
The President of COGECA stressed the fact that the fruit and vegetables sector represents 17% of agricultural production in Europe, whereas the sector only gets 4% of the money allocated to agricultural expenditure. He said that professionals in the sector are calling for the threshold of community contribution to operational funds, set at 4.1%, of the value of total production placed on the market, to rise to 6% and for European aid of 50% for producer organisations to be raised to 60%. For French Socialist Béatrice Patrie, the sector runs the risk of paying for the current budgetary battle over the financial perspectives 2007-2013.