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Crop protection solutions urgently needed in the EU to preserve safety and diversity of agri-food products - Agri-food chain coalition calls for a more ambitious EU approach on minor uses and specialty crops
La agricultura europea pide solución urgente a los fitosanitarios


Brussels, Belgium
May 19, 2014

A broad coalition of associations representing Europe’s agriculture and food chain industries calls on the EU to do much more to find solutions to the lack of plant protection products for specialty crops, such as fruits and vegetables, rice, flowers or seeds. In February 2014 the European Commission (DG SANCO) published a long awaited report on the establishment of a European fund for these so-called minor uses products. The agri-food chain associations agree that the proposal does not go far enough, leaving many problems still unresolved.

The proposed platform at EU level for coordination of existing activities on minor uses and specialty crops via a secretariat is certainly a good start, but it does not offer a long-term perspective.

“The lack of proper plant protection solutions compromises not only the competitiveness of the entire agri-food chain – the EU being the second largest producer of fruit and vegetables in the world and also the second largest importer – but it also compromises the sustainability of the sector to prevent and control new emerging pests, the employment generated within the sector, and more importantly the diversity of high quality agri-food products in Europe”, said Pekka Pesonen, COPA-COGECA Secretary General on behalf of the agri-food chain partners. “These may be referred to as “minor crops”, but they are of major importance to the European economy, and to consumers,” said Jean-Charles Bocquet, Director
General of the European Crop Protection Association. “To better provide plant protection solutions, we need not only more coordination but also a mechanism in place for boosting cooperation and part funding of research projects. Only in this way will we address all problems by leveraging common solutions for all minor uses and specialty crops in a cost effective manner. Otherwise we will continue to learn about problems from one another and not have solutions available to address them.”

“Solutions need to be urgently found to make mutual recognition of plant protection products across EU Member States really possible for specialty crops for all the agri-food chain actors, including producers and industrial processors” said Jean Bernard Bonduelle - PROFEL President.

BACKGROUND

Minor uses concern fruit and vegetables, cereals, including rice, seeds, hops, flowers and all those plants that need a tailor made plant protection product, whether it is for breeding or growing them, storage or transportation.

This minor use and specialty sector is of huge importance in Europe; it represents 18% of the agricultural value on just 3% of the land. The EU is the second largest producer of fruit and vegetables in the world with value exceeding €70 billion per year; and it is also the second largest importer.

The EU’s stringent regulatory process for plant protection products has had an especially severe impact on the availability of products for specialty crops and minor uses. There is a need to review by December 2014 the Regulation 1107/2009 on the authorization of plant protection products in the EU while complying with the high safety legal requirements.
Under its 7th Framework Programme for research, the European Commission will support an ERANET on Integrated Pest Management with specific reference to minor uses (IPM ERANET). This additional instrument of coordination of public research funded by EU Member States is certainly welcome. But it will be important that the work plan of the ERANET is strongly linked to the gaps and needs of solutions identified by the coordination platform on minor uses and specialty crops. At the moment it appears these two initiatives are not well connected to each other, and that the ERANET does not take stock of what is already available in terms of gaps of plant protection identified so far, while moving rapidly forward to the second step, which is financing of new solutions.


La agricultura europea pide solución urgente a los fitosanitarios (HortoInfo)



More news from: Euroseed


Website: http://www.euroseeds.org

Published: May 19, 2014



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