"France, Italy and Spain working together to set action lines in the EU"

In the meeting of the Mix Committee France-Italy-Spain for fruit and vegetables the situation in the tomato, strawberry and garlic markets was analyzed and the prospects for the peach and nectarine campaigns assessed. The proposals to improve the regulation of European markets of fruit and vegetables was also debated.

This committee was co-presided by Isabel García Tejerina, from the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Felice Assenza, general manager of Communitarian Policies and International Markets from the Italian Ministry of Agriculture and Eric Allain, general manager of Agricultural, Food and Territory Policies from the French Ministry of Agriculture. It also counted on the participation from a large number of representatives of the main sectors of fruit and vegetables in the three countries.

During the meeting, the committee analyzed the present market situation and the development of the previous campaign, specially concerning the sectors of tomato, strawberry and garlic. It was confirmed again that Summer campaigns are usually conditioned by a balance between supply and demand and the influence of the weather in the consumption levels.

The dependency of imported amounts of tomato and strawberry was pointed out and it was highlighted that garlic productions will have a normal campaign. Perspectives for harvests and markets of peach and nectarine were also presented.

The committee also informed, in depth, about the present situation of the work and last talks by the Ministries of the three countries with the European Commissioner for Agriculture to get improvements to the present communitarian regulations. The commission has now to present concrete proposals to improve regulation conditions, specially on the entrance and exit prices for imported products.

On the other hand, during the meeting, different points of view were discussed about the specific dispositions for fruits and vegetables in the Single Common Organization of Agricultural Markets (COM) within the CAP's reform after 2013.
Among those dispositions there is the maintenance of the Producers Organizations as a fundamental instrument to manage a balance between the added value sharing in the food chain and the support to start investment measures to improve the sector's productivity.

In that aspect, it was highlighted that if the prevention and crisis management mechanisms are continued to be managed by those producer organizations then they should be improved for a better crisis management.

Source: Magrama