Brussels, 13 Nov, 2008, The dismantling of marketing standards by the European Commission ignores the interests of the European fruit and vegetables sector, farmers and agri-cooperative industry body Copa and Cogeca said today.
“The European Commission is to impose its plans to dismantle the marketing standards for fruit and vegetables despite broad opposition from the sector. It is giving priority to its own bureaucratic and administrative interests and those of certain retailers, ignoring the interests of those that benefit from the standardisation policy”, declared Pekka Pesonen, Secretary General of Copa and Cogeca.
“The use of objective parameters such as size and uniformity helps put a clear and univocal price on each quality, at both the producer and consumer level. As such, EU marketing standards have helped to fairly and transparently balance out trade”, he added.
“From 1 July 2009, the majority of fruit and vegetables placed on the market will no longer reply on common rules. We fear that the absence of EU standards will lead Member States to establish national standards and that private standards will proliferate, which will only hamper the smooth running of the single market and hinder simplification”, concluded Pekka Pesonen.