Reform of the EU’s common market organisation (CMO) for fruit and vegetables must address growers’ needs by protecting their incomes and guaranteeing development for the future, Giuseppe Politi, president of the Italian farmers confederation CIA, said on Tuesday. “We are in favour of a strategy that provides for equal growth and gives value to quality and specialty products,” said Politi. “For this reason the new CMO must take account of both fresh and processed fruit and vegetables.”
Politi stressed that CIA believe first and foremost in the simplification and strengthening of the existing regime. “For fresh fruit and vegetables our confederation supports simplifying and improving the current system. A strategy based on the aggregation of producers remains valid, and it must see producer organisations improve in efficiency and increase the volume of products on the market. In addition, some problems and important issues must be resolved, which up to now have prevented balance in the marketplace and solid development for the future.”
With regard to the processing sector, Politi called for varying degrees of radical reform according to individual product sectors. In particular, the CIA president highlighted citrus and tomatoes for processing. “We consider it opportune to have a period of adaptation for the introduction of a system of partial decoupling aimed at stimulating production continuity and maintaining local and regional speciality tomatoes,” said Politi. And with regard specifically to citrus he believes the way ahead is based on quality certification initiatives and good agricultural practice.
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