The Fresh Produce Consortium is dismayed that producer organisation payments are being suspended in the UK.

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has announced that it is suspending all payments to producer organisations until a new UK policy is put in place to meet EU law on shared facilities. The announcement follows an EU judgement on the sharing of facilities, in which an appeal was lost by the French for not complying with rules on shared facilities.

UK producer organisations have been advised by letter that the RPA has suspended all payments to them and they have been requested to provide details of facilities available to members of groups.

FPC chief executive Nigel Jenney said: “These schemes have been in place for many years - therefore, this should have been thought out properly by the legislator well before now. We trust that the RPA will recognise the hardship it is imposing on companies and will resolve the issue urgently.”

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