Tag Archives: European Union

EU to launch fruit and veg observatory

The European Commission will launch a new market observatory for fruit and vegetables later this year, a move which it says will ‘bring greater transparency and analysis to [a]key sector for European agriculture.’ It will also launch a market observatory for wine at the same time.

Although fruit and vegetables account for 2401 per cent of EU agricultural output, because the fruit and vegetable sector comprises such a wide range of products, the focus of the new observatory will be on tomatoes, apples, citrus fruit, peaches and nectarines.

The Commission currently has four observatories for crops (cereals, oilseeds and proteins), sugar, meat and milk. As part of the plan sector experts will meet regularly to discuss the state of the market.

Photo Caption: The European Commission is to launch a new market observatory for fruits and vegetables.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons The post EU to launch fruit and veg observatory appeared first on Hort News on 14 March 2019.

EU imported 3% more produce from third countries

According to the latest EU statistics, imports of fruit and vegetables by the block from third countries increased by three per cent during the first half of 2018.  During the period €7,745 million of fruit and €1,576 million of vegetables were imported, with fruit showing a 6.5 per cent rise, while vegetables actually fell 9 per cent compared to the same period the previous year. The largest sources of fruit were South Africa (920,464 tonnes), Costa Rica (816,291 tonnes), Chile (738,648 tonnes) and Morocco (618,753 tonnes), and the main products bananas, pineapples and grapes. The most imported vegetable crops were tomatoes, and ‘pod vegetables’ such as green beans, with the largest source by a significant margin being Morocco, followed by Turkey and Egypt. Photo Credit: pxhere The post EU imported 3% more produce from third countries appeared first on Hort News on 21 Feb 2019.

New legislation on organic fertilisers proposed

The European Commission is due to publish a legislative proposal which will recognise digestate from anaerobic digestion and compost as fertilisers under EU law.

Only mineral fertilisers are currently under the Fertilisers Regulation of EU law meaning they can be freely traded across the EU market, something that it is not possible for organic fertilisers which are subject to diverse national legislation.

This revision aims to create a level playing field between the two sectors and opening up the possibility to trade digestate and compost freely across the EU. It is expected that the regime would run in parallel to existing national legislation on organic fertilisers, offering the possibility to producers to comply with national rules if the product is intended for use within the country’s borders.

The proposal is expected to be formally published by the European Commission at the end of March. Once published it will be formally considered, and may be amended, by the European Parliament and the Council.

Photo Caption: Applying compost

Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons

The post New legislation on organic fertilisers proposed appeared first on Hort News.