The UK’s Fresh Produce Consortium has accused the European Commission of being “way off the mark” with a advert placed in a British newspaper that was aimed at stimulating fruit and vegetable sales.
In a statement, the industry body described the Commission’s ‘What’s on the menu this summer?’ campaign, which appeared on 18 July in the ‘Metro‘ newspaper, as a “wasted opportunity” for UK businesses.
“The Commission is definitely off the menu as far as UK businesses are concerned, having damaged the fresh produce industry through unfounded and premature links between fresh produce and the recent E.coli outbreaks,” claimed FPC chief executive Nigel Jenney.
“This poorly planned one-off advertisement is another example of the Commission’s ineptitude. It makes no reference to UK businesses and will do nothing to help them or restore consumers’ confidence in fresh produce.”
Jenney said the FPC had received “no consultation or prior notification” from the Commission prior to the publication of the advert.
The organisation also said it had contacted the European authorities suggesting “more effective” ways of supporting UK companies, through removing fresh peas and beans from the current EU ban on Egyptian imports and providing direct compensation to all UK businesses adversely affected by E.coli-related events.
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