On 8 and 9 March 2012 the General Meeting of AREFLH ((Assemblée des Régions Européennes Fruitières, Légumières et Horticoles) took place in Sint-Truiden, the centre of the Belgian fruit cultivation. The Flemish government, the Alliance of Belgian Horticultural Cooperatives 1 (VBT) and the Belgian Fruit Auction 2 (BFV) guaranteed the organisation of this international meeting.
The meeting took place in the BFV
L’AREFLH combines 27 vegetable and fruit producing regions in Europe, who together represent more than 40% of the EU-production. The countries involved are France, Belgium, Spain and Italy. Unique in this organisation is the public-private cooperation between regional governments and sector organisations.
AREFLH has as an objective to combine the European fruit and vegetable regions, to defend and to represent them at the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council.
Company visit Auction House Borgloon
"As an important fruit and vegetable exporting region it is quite normal that Flanders is the host of their General Meeting. More than 70 representatives (both regional authorities and sector organisations) from the most important regions in Europe discussed the most important policy themes in the fruit and vegetable sector."
"Much attention was of course paid to the Common Market Agreement Fruit and Vegetables and to proposals for the improvement of certain aspects of these rules" Philippe Appeltans of VBT tells. "More specifically about the conclusion that the system 'crisis control and prevention' does not offer sufficient possibilities to the sector." During these days there was also a call to stimulate the cooperation between acknowledged producers organisations (PO's) and Associations of Producers Organisation (APO's) with additional possibilities for transnational cooperation. Other important subjects which were discussed, were amongst others, the European standard for integrated production, the school fruit program and the stimulation of fruit and vegetable consumption in the EU.
On Thursday 8 March priorities were recorded within the 'college of producers' for 2012, the Board of Directors met and the first plenary session of AEOP (Association Européenne des Organisations de Producteurs Fruit et Légumes) took place. Veiling Borgloon was also visited. On Friday 9 March the General Meeting took place with in addition to the formal ceremonies: explanations about Flanders as a fruit and vegetable region and visitor location BFV, the introduction of new members West and Central Macedonia (Greece), reporting by the various commissions AREFLH and an introduction by Mr. Jacquin, Head of the unit fruit and vegetables, DG AGRI, European Commission about the future policy for fruit and vegetables in the EU.
