'Den Haag, wij sappen er niks meer van'. This, a play on words, meaning, 'it's entirely incomprehensible' is aimed at the Dutch government. Under this slogan, six pure juice producers are campaigning against the planned January 1, 2024, consumer tax increase.
That means, from then, the producers will not pay €0.09, but €0.26 tax per liter on its juices. They consider it unfair that pure juices fall under the same rule as soda. "We, and soon, by extension, fruit growers, are victims of a rule intended for unhealthy soft and energy drinks," begins Albert Schulp of Schulp Fruit Juices and the initiative's spokesman.
Like soda makers, pure fruit and vegetable juice producers have been paying consumer tax since the 90s. "The government wants to increase that tax, which is intended to be a kind of health tax. They tried to find a quick way to introduce a 'sugar tax' and decided to use the consumer tax as such. Since we already pay consumer tax, that hike hits us too. That took everyone by surprise."
Fruit juice producers do not have the option of adding less sugar to their product, says Albert. "Soft or energy drink producers can opt for sugar substitutes or variants with less sugar. We, however, work with natural sugars from fruit that come directly from the trees and contain only naturally occurring sugars," he says.
"We cannot extract these from the fruit. Also, it's quite special anyway because very little fruit is consumed in the Netherlands. The country is near the bottom of the ranking list of where the most fruit is eaten. I think it's undoubtedly a good measure to stimulate consumption, but if our prices rise, people will increasingly choose other drinks that don't contain natural fruit."
Producers and growers in danger
The producers - Flevosap, De Appelaere, Appeven, Van Kempen, Fruityline, and Schulp - argue that the new tax will cause prices to climb by 10 to 20%. "In a year where prices have already risen so much, and people have to watch their pennies closely, this could be catastrophic for pure fruit juice sales. Not all producers will survive that, I'm afraid," Albert reckons.
"It also affects fruit growers. We buy most of our fruit from Dutch growers, but if less juice is to be drunk, how much fruit we can still buy from them will become questionable. That's also why, for example, the NFO and the Proeftuin voor de Fruitteelt both sent letters of support to the Dutch House of Representatives to show they back our plea."
Deadline approaching
Action is, thus, needed, Schulp explains, because the deadline is fast approaching. "We protested in front of the House of Representatives some time ago. It helped that all the political parties were surprised that the measure covered us. We heard different reactions that something must be done, but the wheels don't always turn as fast as they should, so this must become policy," he explains.
The protestors, indeed, suffered a recent setback when the House vetoed a BBB (the Dutch farmer-citizen movement) pure juices exclusion motion. "We expected it to pass, but oddly enough, it was the chamber's largest entrepreneurial party that, to our shock and surprise, voted against it. There will be a committee meeting this week, where we want to show that our plan deserves support across the board. We're fully committed to that for next week's debate. Time's running out, but hopefully, common sense will win out."
The Netherlands is the odd man out
In this regard, the joint parties draw courage from research by the ministry itself and the situation in other countries. "In that sense, the Netherlands is truly the odd man out. Many European countries have a kind of 'sugar tax,' but pure juices are excluded almost everywhere (except Estonia). Research commissioned by the Ministry and the Public Health Institute shows it's entirely possible to exclude pure juices from the new tax increase. It's a nail-biting situation, but we notice very broad support from the sector," Albert concludes.
For more information:
Wij sappen er niks meer van
Email: wijsappenernikesmeervan@gmail.com
Website: www.wijsappenerniksmeervan.nl
Albert Schulp
Schulp Vruchtensappen
76 Zandpad
3621 NG, Breukelen, NL
Tel: +31 (0) 346 263 930
Email: info@schulp.nl
Website: www.schulp.nl