The ANPP, the French association for apples and pears, has come out vocally against the European Commission's plans to do away with import certificates for apples from third countries, according to French weekly Fld.
The Commission has created a new mechanism to measure imports, and it is this system that it wishes to install to replace certificates, the paper said.
The ANPP wrote to the ministry of agriculture to defend the current system, arguing that it was 'a management tool' providing 'preliminary information on the weekly entry of apples into the EU'.
'The system allows the sector to anticipate, by alerting operators before the market becomes flooded,' the ANPP said.
The association added that the system was equally appreciated by Southern Hemisphere exporters, which enjoyed the visibility it gives them on the European market.
In a letter to Bruno Le Maire, the Coordination Rurale farming union expressed its support for the ANPP's position, demanding that the ministry do its best to maintain import certificates.
