Fepex has condemned a series of attacks this weekend by French farmers on lorry loads of Spanish peaches being transported and has demanded that the authorities do more to guarantee the free transit of goods. The attacks come in the wake of plummeting stonefruit prices across Europe in recent weeks.
The Spanish exporter federation said the action was designed to provoke arbitrary discrimination among other EU member states against Spanish fruit and that they would have serious consequences against Spain’s fruit industry if they were allowed to continue unchecked.
Fepex said it would bring up the attacks at meeting of EU agriculture ministers due to take place next week, in which it would also highlight the ineffectiveness of the EU’s Common Market Organisation to deal with market failures.
Spain’s Minister of Agriculture is also due to call a meeting of the Spanish-Franco-Italian peach and nectarine contact group on Thursday to discuss the situation.
In 2013 Spain exported 52,000 tonnes of peaches to France, of which 10,206 tonnes were shipped in July, mainly for re-export to other markets.
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