MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brussels funds programs to promote consumption of EU agricultural produce

Dacian Ciolos: EU agricultural products is “unique in their quality and diversity”

The European Commission approved this week 26 programs in 13 Member States to provide information and promote agricultural products in the European Union. Total budget for the programs, which will run for between one and three years, is €75.1 million, of which the EU will contribute €37.6 million (50%).

The selected programmes cover wine, PDOs, PGIs and TSGs, organic food and farming, fruit and vegetables, horticulture, milk and milk products, olive oil and table olives, eggs, seed oil and meat.

“European Union agricultural products are unique in their quality and diversity”, said Dacian Cioloş, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development. “In an increasingly open global market, it is not enough to produce excellent food and drink. We must increase efforts to communicate the standards and quality of European agricultural products to consumers. EU programs of this kind are an effective way of helping our producers in an increasingly competitive world”.

In addition to these programs and in light of the E. coli crisis, Commissioner Dacian Cioloş has proposed a regulatory change which will enable professional organisations to submit additional promotional programs for fresh fruit and vegetables in the single market and in third countries by 15 August. He intends to propose an additional budget of €15 million for this initiative.

In 2000 the Council decided that the EU could assist in financing measures that provide information on or promote agricultural products and food on the EU single market and in third countries. The total budget available for these promotion programmes is €55 million.

The measures financed can consist of public relations, promotional or publicity campaigns, in particular highlighting the advantages of EU products, especially in terms of quality, food safety and hygiene, nutrition, labelling, animal welfare or environmentally-friendly production methods.

These measures can also cover participation at events and fairs, information campaigns on the EU system of protected designations of origin (PDO), protected geographical indications (PGI) and traditional specialities guaranteed (TSG), information on EU quality and labelling systems and organic farming, and information campaigns on the EU system of quality wines produced in specified regions (QWPSR).

The EU finances up to 50% of the cost of these measures (up to 60% in programs promoting the consumption of fruit and vegetables by children or concerning information on responsible drinking and the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption), the remainder being met by the professional/inter-branch organisations which proposed them and/or by the Member States concerned.