The EU fruit and vegetable industry seeks alternative markets.

How to deal with the consequences of the Russian ban on imported products, along with explanations of why European fresh fruit and vegetable consumption is not only stagnating but declining, were some of the points that were discussed at Freshfel's annual general meeting (AGM), held in Brussels.

Exploring possible alternative markets to ease pressure on European growers is Freshfel's main concern, as countries appear to be able to rebalance export and import trade agreements at a time when the Russian political ban on fresh produce shows no signs of abating.

Freshfel's communication and trade policy advisor, André Feldhof, analyzed how the negotiations are going to open new markets and what are the barriers that must be overcome.

"The first classifications of the countries are what we call 'partners' in the framework of the embargo, which are all the other markets that are subject to the Russian embargo: EE.UU., Norway, Japan, Canada and Australia ", indicated Feldhof.

“For some of these markets we are negotiating three commercial agreements [Japan, Canada and USA] and we are asking for a little solidarity, because if you look at the impact of the Russian veto, Most of the burden falls on and within the European Union, in the fruit and vegetable sector. Like this, all this embargo, which is directed against five different entities, it affects a large part of the EU fruit and vegetable sector ", he added.

"The European plant import regime indicates that everything is allowed unless it is prohibited, while in the rest of the world everything is forbidden unless it is allowed. That is why we think that we have not only given many advantages to third-country producers to access European markets, we have also been very patient in our own requests to access other markets and we believe that this approach is not really working. ", stated André Feldhof.

He also cited Japan as an example, where trade requests are per product and, in some cases even by category, which means that producers can only export some items or varieties.

"For example, Italy exports three different varieties of orange to Japan while all other varieties of orange are blocked, and that is very cumbersome for European exporters ", commented.

"This is something that we want to be questioned within these trade agreements because we believe that an agreement that only offers benefits for one of the trading partners in terms of market access is not a good trade agreement", he said.

“So if these agreements cannot offer market access for Europe's fresh produce exporters, then we believe that they are not worthy of being persecuted or concluded ", declared.

In the meantime, Freshfel is examining other countries outside the European Union that are filling the gaps in Russia's ban on European bloc products.; including Egypt, Israel and Turkey.

"The second group of countries is the one that benefits the most from this embargo, which means that now they can take the place of the exports of the European Union ", He said.

"So we are looking for the countries of the Southern Hemisphere, where some of them could also take advantage of the Russian embargo to access that market. And the fourth group is that of emerging markets ", commented.

"We have seen that the European fruit and vegetable sector has been very patient in recent years and in some countries there have been bilateral negotiations that have been concluded.. This gives many benefits to the partner country to export to the European Union without reciprocal access to markets for European producers ", declared.

And is that, definitely, Political endorsement and support can lead to access to new markets and open new trade agreements that work for all parties. Like this, this method, simple but effective, is something Freshfel would like to see more of across Europe.

"Access to the Canadian market for Belgian pears was opened just last week and this case shows a great deal of political support from the trade commissioner who happens to be Belgian.", commented.

"That worked. It gave results after quite a long process, because the export request was made in 2010, but it took that political determination to bring the process to an end and we would like to see more examples of this across Europe. ", concluded.