How to deal with the fallout from Russia's produce import embargo was one of the key points of discussion at Freshfel's annual general meeting (AGM) held last week in Brussels, along with explanations as to why European fresh fruit and vegetable consumption is not just stagnating but decreasing. In a two-part feature, www.freshfruitportal.com talks with representatives of the European fresh produce association about future priorities for the EU fruit and vegetable sectors, beginning with a focus on finding alternative markets.

Exploring the scope for alternative markets to help alleviate pressure on European growers is of key concern to Freshfel, as it looks to which countries can be targeted to help re-balance export-import trade agreements at a time when the politically-charged Russian ban on the bloc's fresh produce shows no sign of abating.

Freshfel's communication and trade policy adviser, André Feldhof, discusses how negotiations are going to open up new markets and the barriers that need to be overcome.

"The first classifications of countries are the ones that we call 'partners' under the embargo which are all the other markets being targeted by the Russian embargo; the United States, Norway, Japan, Canada and Australia," he told www.freshfruitportal.com.

"For some of these markets we are negotiating three trade agreements [Japan, Canada and U.S] and are calling for some solidarity because if you look at the impact of the Russian embargo, the biggest share of the burden is borne by the European Union and within this by the fruit and vegetable sector, so this entire embargo, which is directed against five different entities, most affects the EU's fruit and vegetable sector.

"The European plant import regime is that everything is allowed unless forbidden whereas the rest of the world it's everything is forbidden unless allowed, and so there we think we have not only given a lot of advantages to third country producers to access the European markets, but we've also been very patient in our own applications for access to other markets and we think that this approach is not really working anymore.

Trade agreements should be mutually beneficial

Feldhof cites one example in Japan where trade applications are per produce and in some cases even per category, which means producers can only export some items or varieties.

"For instance, Italy is exporting three different orange varieties to Japan whereas all other orange varieties are blocked, so that's extremely cumbersome for the European exporters.

"This is something that we want to see challenged within these trade agreements because we think that an agreement that only delivers benefits for one of the trade partners in terms of market access is not a good trade agreement.

"So if these agreements can't deliver market access for European fresh produce exporters then we think they are not worthy of being pursued or concluded."

Meanwhile, Freshfel is examining other countries outside of the EU that are plugging the gaps from Russia’s ban on EU produce; namely Egypt, Israel and Turkey.

"The second group of countries are those that are benefiting the most from this embargo which means that they can now take the place of the European Union exports.

"Then we are looking at the Southern hemisphere countries where some of them may also be able to take advantage of the Russian embargo to access that market. And the fourth group is the emerging markets.

"We have seen the European fruit and vegetable sector being very patient in the last couple of years and in some countries there have been bilateral negotiations that have been concluded, which gives a lot of benefits to the partner country to export to the European Union without any reciprocal market access for the European producers."

Political determination matters

During its AGM Freshfel also put forward calls for more robust political determination to get new market access moving sooner rather than later.

It's not rocket science to suggest that political backing and support can drive new market access and open up new trade agreements that work for all parties, but this simple yet effective method is something Freshfel would like to see more of throughout Europe.

"Just last week market access for Belgian pears for Canada was opened and this case demonstrates a lot of political backing by the trade commissioner who happens to be Belgian.

"That worked. It delivered results after quite a long process because the export application was made in 2010 but it took that political determination to bring the process to a close at this moment and we would like to see more examples of this around Europe."

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