Spain: COAG claims "rigor" to EU when fighting border frauds

The Coordinator for Farmers and Live-stockers organizations (COAG) participated yesterday in the meeting of the Contact Group for Tomato, from the Hispano-Italo-French Mixed Committee, in Paris. The responsibility for the Fruits and Vegetables Sector at COAG, Andrés Góngora, exposed the need to modify the entrance price system for imports and presented the need to introduce changes in the communitarian norm for fruits and vegetables coming from third party countries to comply with the same productive, environmental and social conditions.

Góngora pointed out that it's expected that Commissary Ciolos recent words about his intention to improve the entrance prices regime are not just words and that the Commission makes a quick and effective change in the system, so they stop being a way for frauds in imports, especially tomato coming to the European Union. On the other hand, he also insisted that the mechanisms for crisis management must be improved urgently and a system must be created to allow real intervention in the market in situations when the origin price drop is generalized. Finally, the difficult market situation for tomato during the 2011 campaign was also discussed.