A leading Spanish fresh produce association has claimed that the European Union’s latest reforms to its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) are likely to increase costs and cut incomes growers in the country.

Asaja Murcia has denounced the latest change to CAP, which was rubber stamped by European ministers earlier this week, as have been made without assessing the wider opinion of people that would be affected by reforms.

Under the changes to CAP, direct subsidies to farmers in Europe will gradually be reduced, with the resulting funds set to be redirected to other rural development schemes.

Asaja Murcia general secretary Alfonso Gálvez Caravaca has demanded that EU ministers “urgently provide solutions” before the reforms come into force, claiming they were “likely to lead to a substantial increase in costs and a fall in income for Murcian farmers”.

The association said the changes were likely to affect 23 per cent of producers in Spain who receive more than €5,000 per year.

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