Brazil has pledged to freeze the application of new tariffs to European garlic after an agreement was reached between the South American country and the European Union last week, reports the World Trade Organization. The European Union, for its part, will review the safeguard measures against Brazilian steel applied at the beginning of the year, and which led Brazil to react on February 18 by announcing a tariff increase for several European products, such as garlic.
Brazil is the main importer of European and Spanish garlic outside Europe. Exports from Europe to Brazil account for 12% of the EU's total garlic shipments over the last 3 years, with an average export figure of more than 15 million kilos. Moreover, it is a market of special interest for European garlic, as exports begin when the new harvest season is just starting. This prevents the new production from saturating the European domestic demand, helping prices stabilize ahead of the new campaign.
"For European producers, the loss of this market would cause serious damage, as the sector is already strongly affected by the Chinese oversupply crisis and the impact of the Russian veto," says Luis Fernando Rubio, director of the National Association of Producers and marketers of Garlic, ANPCA, which currently represents more than 1,800 producers and the 61 most important garlic marketing companies in Spain. As a whole, this association accounts for 73% of the total production marketed in Spain, with 12,740 accredited hectares.
European exporters will be able to continue shipping garlic to Brazil without additional tariffs thanks to the negotiations that have been carried out since last February by organizations like ANPCA, working through its representative in Europe: FruitVegetables EUROPE.
"The meetings held in Poland with the representatives of DG AGRI in the framework of the General Assembly of FruitVegetables EUROPE, as well as the letters addressed to DG TRADE, the support shown by several Spanish MEPs, and the meetings held in Brussels with the different negotiators, have eventually yielded some results and prevented the tariff increase," he says.
According to official data from 2017, the European garlic production is mainly grown in Spain, which accounts for almost 47% of the total in Europe, with 274,712 tons, followed by Ukraine with 185,830 tons, Romania with 55,513 tons, Italy with 29,983 tons and France, with 21,335 tons.
For more information:
Luis Fernando Rubio
ANPCA
Plaza Arrabal del Coso, s/n. Aptdo 66
16660 Las Pedroñeras, Cuenca. Spain
T: +34 638 10 39 10
Info@anpca.es
www.anpca.es