The Association ofGreek Fruit, Vegetable and Juice Exporting Companies, INCOFRUIT-HELLAS, has announced its dissatisfaction with the measures proposed by the European Commission for the first half of 2015 to support fruit and vegetable producers affected by the Russian embargo.
George Polihronakis, Specialist Consultant for the Association, said that the extraordinary measures proposed by the European Commission will be ineffective to tackle the market crisis that the EU's fresh produce sector is facing due to the loss of the Russian market.
The measures proposed to Greece by the Commission for the withdrawal, green harvesting and non-harvesting applies just to a small number of products and with volumes far below the actual exports to Russia, according to the entity.
It is worth noting that strawberries have not been included in the list of supported products, despite the fact that in the first half of the year Greece's exports to Russia amounted to 21,959 tonnes. Additionally, the figures under the current programme will expire on 31/12/2014 and are non-transferable.
Even for products included in the quotas, the maximum amounts set by the Commission lie below production costs. For example, the aid for tomatoes intended for free distribution has been set at 27,45 EUR/100 kg, while for those intended for other purposes it has been set at 18.3 EUR/100 kg, which is insufficient.
The Association estimates that the sector is facing a severe crisis, largely due to the loss of the Russian market, but also to multiple other negative factors, such as the crisis of consumption, the strong increase in imports from third countries, the reduction in the value of our exported products and the ineffectiveness of the CMO crisis management measures introduced after 08.01.2014.
Source: euro2day.gr