Five producer organisations face expulsion from the EU Fruit and Vegetable Aid Scheme by the end of the week, according to the Rural Payments Agency.
At the time of going to press, the RPA said the five POs still had time to prove compliance, but admitted it was looking “extremely unlikely”.
The RPA started operating the EU flagship scheme two years ago with a listed 41 UK organisations, representing over 30 per cent of UK production.
“Two POs withdrew from the scheme when we completed the revised guidelines, 22 were found to be compliant and for the other 17 there wasn’t enough evidence available so we had to suspend them,” head of policy Sharon Ellis told FPJ this week.
The 17 POs were each suspended by the RPA for a year and given the chance to gather fresh evidence to prove their compliance.
“Of those 17 producer organisations we suspended last August, three voluntarily withdrew, nine have now been listed as fully compliant, and their suspension has been uplifted, but five have still not proven their compliance and face derecognition from the scheme by the end of the week,” added Ellis.
The PO scheme was designed to help growers increase their competitiveness in the supply chain. The EU’s Fruit and Vegetables Regime provides financial support to co-operatives formed by producers, which must meet EU-driven criteria and guidelines.
Ellis believes the RPA has successfully demonstrated to the European Commission’s auditors its consistent approach to making sure POs match the scheme’s revised regulatory requirements.
“We will make sure that POs within the scheme will be receiving timely payments and that is a process we are currently completing,” concluded Ellis.
