Brussels, Jan 24 - The European Commission backed plans on Wednesday for a sweeping reform of the EU's fruit and vegetable sector, revising and scrapping many of the 1.5 billion euros ($1.95 billion) of subsidies that are paid out each year.
If EU farm ministers agree, the reform plan would decouple subsidies for producing and processing fruit and vegetables: EU jargon for breaking the link between how much a farmer produces and the amount of subsidy that he receives from Brussels.
Export subsidies for the fruit and vegetable sector, which accounts for nearly a fifth of the EU's agricultural output, would be abolished.
The plan, authored by EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel, is due to be presented to the bloc's farm ministers next week although they are unlikely to start debating the detail for some months.