EU Farm Leaders called for support for EU fruit and vegetable producer organisations, especially cooperatives, to be maintained after 2013 in a position paper on support for the sector under the future CAP approved on Thursday.

Speaking in Brussels, Copa-Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen stressed “The EU fruit and vegetable sector plays a vital role, contributing to a healthy diet for the 500 million EU consumers and maintaining employment in the rural areas of the EU. It represents nearly 17% of the total value of agriculture produce in the EU. Last year, they were badly hit, with the value of production for vegetables falling on average by as much as 10.8% and that of fruit by 13.6%, compared to 2003. The crisis in the sector cannot be explained by normal supply and demand fluctuations. Copa-Cogeca consequently calls for crisis management and prevention measures to be improved dramatically for all producers after 2013, in a bid to ensure adequate food supplies at a reasonable price for consumers”.

“In addition, farmers bargaining power in the food chain must be strengthened so that they can obtain a larger and fairer share of their income from the market. This can be achieved by concentrating supply via producer organisations, especially cooperatives. Support for producer organisations through the operational funds must continue after 2013 under the first pillar of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Copa-Cogeca opposes any transfer of the budget for producer organisations to the second pillar of the CAP. Furthermore, fruit and vegetable producer organisations, which are members of certain associations of producer organisations (APO), should be able to exceed the 4.6% limit if they want within the framework of the APO.

Promotion efforts for EU fruit and vegetables must also be stepped up and imports to the EU must respect the EU’s high standards in terms of quality, safety and environmental requirements”.