European trade body Freshfel has once again hit out at European Commission legislation on marketing standards in produce, as it questions the move’s effectiveness.
On July 1, regulation 1221/2008 entered into force, introducing a revamped framework of marketing standards for fruit and vegetables. The new rules keep only detailed marketing standards for the 10 leading products in terms of volume, while introducing basic conformity checks to ensure that all other fruit and vegetables are safe, sound and of marketable quality. The commission widely campaigned that the new scheme would simplify legislation and cut red tape.
Last week, the European Commission announced its delivery on cutting red tape imposed by EU legislation, citing among others the abolition of 26 fruit and vegetable marketing standards, saving up to €970 million (£873.6m) for fruit and vegetable producers.
In a statement, Freshfel said: "While many in the fruit and vegetable business would have liked to save this amount of money, the announcement shows once more the commission’s lack of understanding of the sector, as the decision eventually ended up adding costs in the chain. The decision to remove 26 marketing standards was adopted by the commission at the end of last year, despite wide opposition of member states and the sector.
“Today it is obvious that the new rules have not simplified operations nor reduced the administrative or financial burden for the sector. Indeed - according to Freshfel estimates - new controls and paperwork have even been introduced in some of the member states for up to 400 fruit and vegetables to verify that all products are sound, safe and of marketable quality.”
Freshfel estimates that an additional import volume of 1.8m tonnes of often small consignments needs to be checked according to these basic criteria, confronting the sector not only with additional checks and paperwork for issuing conformity certificates but also with unnecessary costs.
Freshfel general delegate Philippe Binard said: “The commission’s claim of savings worth €970m for the sector adds insult to injury to a sector suffering from a crisis which today touches most agricultural commodities. The idea that fruit and vegetable producers would no longer have to grade their products because of the abolition of EU marketing standards is telling for the ill-preparedness with which this decision was taken. The lack of legislation has been filled with contractual clauses referring to the very same provisions of the legislation and some operators now even have to apply standards they never before had to under EU legislation.
“Such assertions demonstrate the lack of understanding of the fruit and vegetable market by the commission. Grading will continue despite the removal of EU marketing standards and, on the other hand, the trend of labelling obligations imposed upon the sector is rather on the increase with an inflation of labelling requirements related to safety, nutrition and environment.”
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