27 million Euro suport for promotion of EU foods

The European Commission has approved a tranche of 14 programmes to promote agricultural products in the European Union and in third countries. The total budget of the programmes, running for a period of three years, is €53.86 million of which the EU contributes €27.15 million. The selected programmes cover fresh and processed fruit and vegetables, milk and milk products, PDOs (Protected Designations of Origin), PGIs (Protected Geographical Indications) and TSGs (Traditional Specialities Guaranteed), olive oil, organic products, ornamental horticulture and meat.

Within the information and promotion scheme, the Commission services received by mid-June 2012, 34 programmes targeting the internal market and the third countries as part of the second wave of programme submission. Following an evaluation procedure, 14 programmes were selected for co-financing out of which 10 target the internal market and 4 target third countries. Two of the selected programmes were proposed by more than one Member State, while third country programmes aim at the Russian, Chinese, North American and Latin American, Norwegian, Japanese and South-East Asian markets.

For the whole of year 2012 the European Commission approved 34 programmes in total submitted by the Member States corresponding to a total budget of €124.6 million, out of which €63.1 million co-financed by the EU.

Background
In 2000 the Council decided that the EU could assist in financing measures that provide information on or promote agricultural products and food on the EU single market and in third countries. The total annual budget available for these promotion programmes is around €55 million.

The measures financed can consist of public relations, promotional or publicity campaigns, in particular highlighting the advantages of EU products, especially in terms of quality, food safety and hygiene, nutrition, labelling, animal welfare or environmentally-friendly production methods. These measures can also cover participation at events and fairs, information campaigns on the EU system of protected designations of origin (PDO), protected geographical indications (PGI) and traditional specialities guaranteed (TSG), information on EU quality and labelling systems and organic farming, and information campaigns on the EU system of quality wines produced in specified regions (QWPSR). The EU finances up to 50% of the cost of these measures (up to 60% in programmes promoting the consumption of fruit and vegetables by children or concerning information on responsible drinking and the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption), the reminder being met by the professional/inter-branch organisations which proposed them and in some cases also by the Member States concerned. For promotion on the single market and in third countries, interested professional organisations can submit their proposals to the Member States twice a year. The Member States then send the list of programmes they have selected to the Commission along with a copy of each programme. Subsequently the Commission evaluates the programmes and decides whether they are eligible.

Source: europa.eu