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| 28 jul 2014 |
13:09 |
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Severe crisis in fruit sector
In a letter sent to European Farm Commissioner Dacian Ciolos today, Copa-Cogeca warned of the serious crisis hitting the European market for summer fruits, especially peaches and nectarines, and called for action to be taken immediately.
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Copa-Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen stressed “Market returns for peaches and nectarines finally crumbled in June, with prices 30-50% less than those seen in 2013. This was a result of two key factors – high production volumes for some varieties and regions coupled with poor weather conditions, causing the fruit to ripen at different times and consumption to drop in some parts of Europe as a result of the lack of heat. This is an exceptional pan-European crisis, felt in all producer Member States, and will worsen during the rest of the marketing year unless action is taken”.
He continued : “ That is why it is crucial that the Commission adopts immediately exceptional measures in the framework of the Single Market Organisation (CMO) ensuring that exceptional market withdrawals are introduced and financed outside of the operational funds for a limited time period , open to all producers. This should help rebalance supply and demand. We believe that a small contribution from the crisis reserve would help the sector to recover and prevent producers from going out of business. This would benefit the economy, especially in southern Europe which are currently undergoing a severe crisis”.
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