A joint Spanish-French summit on fruit and vegetables, including officials from both ministries of agriculture as well as horticultural organisations, has met to agree a strategy for tackling problems surrounding some non-EU imports, particularly tomatoes and garlic.
The Madrid meeting, which was chaired by Spain’s minister for rural affairs, Alicia Villaruiz, and France’s director of agricultural policy, Pascal Vine, agreed a joint approach for drawing the European Union’s attention to difficulties in both sectors.
The summit, which was attended by representatives from leading fresh produce associations Fepex, Coag and Asaja, focused in particular on ongoing problems regarding Moroccan tomato imports, which Spain claims have repeatedly flouted import controls.
Fepex claimed that the lack of control over Moroccan imports was endangering European production, arguing that the reported non-payment of import taxes by some Moroccan exporters was in breach of the EU’s agreement of association with the country.
During the meeting, representatives from both France and Spain also discussed the outcome of initiatives carried out over the past 12 months to further develop tomato, strawberry, stonefruit and garlic production in both countries.
