Europe must internationalize step-by-step

At the European Freshfel Policy Meeting Han van Es from DPA talked about production in Europe, by request from Freshfel. "It will be a challenge to explain this quickly, mainly because every product and region is different. But basically we can say that there are a number of products that we have too much of."

Overcapacity
"Along with the problems we are having with the Russian boycott, we realized that we have another problem: we have to deal with overcapacity. Of course, the Russian embargo is not helping the situation. Here are just a few of the products that we have too much of: apples, pears, tomatoes, and cucumbers."

Not unhappy
He admits that over the last few weeks they had good communication with DG Agri (European Commission). "There are always people who say it can go faster, but we should not be dissatisfied with how the last two months have gone. At the member state level it was difficult at times to implement the measures. There were complaints coming from countries that are very active in the fruit and vegetable industry. These countries indicated that is was not always clear what the results of the measures were. They were afraid that they would be punished by Russia. We also saw that if a country did not have good infrastructure to deal quickly with these types of issues, it would have to go through an army of people first before there was some clarity in the sector. If the apples are already hanging on the tress a decision has to be made quickly. You can't wait three or four weeks."

New Markets
"We have to start looking for new markets, but that is not possible in 24 hours. It is important for the European sector to further internationalize step-by-step. A challenge we will have in the next 10-15 years: in 2020 there will be more than 20 cities in the world with more than 20 million people. How are we going to supply all of them? How will we handle the logistics side? Not by sending all the Belgian tomatoes to Tokyo Bay or Rio de Janeiro. If we want to be part of this market and part of the new developments in the market, we must internationalize. You can already see some companies that have taken steps to do so. They can currently send products to Russia from their Moroccan or South African branches. In order to do these types of things your company needs certain skills and characteristics. I was at the yearly meeting for Copa Cogeca and there they talked about 'family farming'. This is an important part, but real 'mom and pop'-companies cannot send their products to Tokyo Bay. In the near future you will see a difference in local production, in supply and in the big companies that are active all over the world. In Europe we need certain parties that can work privately or cooperatively. These developments must continue, we need that for the years to come."