The European Tomato Growers’ Group has presented the European Commission with proposals to reform Europe’s entry price system for fresh produce imports from non-EU countries, which it claims is necessary to avoid flooding markets with low-price products.
The group, which is comprised of producers’ associations from the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, France, Poland and the UK, argued that reform is the only means of guaranteeing that imported products respect minimum prices.
In a statement, the producers’ alliance said the present system must be reformed to avoid the non-payment of customs duties, which it said had been reported on numerous occasions by the European Anti-Fraud Office and EU customs officials.
The European Anti-Fraud Office has already said reform of the current regime would be useful, given the abuse of the system by some importers who have avoided paying customs duties.
The Growers’ Group said a change to the system was “urgently needed” as it had witnessed, since the abandonment of earlier reform proposals in 2006, repeated crises in European markets caused by a rise in imports with unpaid duties from non-EU countries.
