The European Commission adopted a new program for emergency market measures for perishable fruit & vegetables in the wake of the Russian ban on imports of certain EU agricultural products. Worth up to €165 million, this new scheme provides support to withdraw surplus volumes from the market and comes in addition to the programme worth up to €125 million € for fruit & vegetables that was announced on August 18, but suspended on September 10 because provisional applications showed that the full budget allocation had already been claimed. In order to be better targeted, the new scheme includes an annex outlining eligible volumes in individual Member States with specific figures per product group. These volumes are based on export volumes for this period in the last 3 years with amounts deducted to take account of volumes already claimed under the first €125 million scheme. The new plan also includes oranges, mandarins and clementines for the first time.

EU Agricultural Commissioner Dacian Ciolos said that he was pleased with the development. “This program will be more targeted than the initial scheme although there is still some flexibility within the four product groups,” he said.

The scheme will run until the end of the year and includes an annex with specific volumes listed in four product categories for the 12 countries which exported the most fruit & vegetables to Russia during the September-December period on average from 2011 to 2013.

The 4 product groups are apples & pears (total 181,000 tonnes); citrus fruit: oranges, mandarins, clementines (total 96,090 tonnes); other vegetables: carrots, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes (44,300 tonnes); other fruits: kiwi, plums & table grapes (total 76,895 tonnes). A number of products covered in the previous scheme – cabbage, cauliflowers, headed broccoli, mushrooms, and soft fruit – are no longer included.