EC gives €10.2m for food export promotion

The European Commission yesterday approved 10 programmes worth €20.5 million to provide information on and promote agricultural products outside the EU. The Commission contribution is 50 per cent of the total budget.

The programmes that have been accepted are targeted at North America, China, Russia, India, Japan and countries of Eastern and Central Europe. The products covered are wine, olive oil, meat and dairy products.

The EU offers financial support to generic promotion programmes for agricultural products on the internal market and in third countries. Since 2001, it has approved third country promotion programmes for €61 million in total.

Most of these covered wines, fruits and vegetables and meat products. The main targeted markets have been Japan, North America, Russia and non-EU European countries. Italy, France, Spain have been the most active countries in initiating programmes in third countries.

For 2004, the Commission already approved 46 internal market programmes with a budget of €69 million and a first series of 8 third country programmes with a budget of €10 million.

The latest EC funding follows a trend starting in December 1999 when the Council decided that the EU could fund, in whole or in part, measures in non-EU countries that provide information on, or promote, agricultural products and food products. These measures can be public relations, promotional or publicity measures, in particular highlighting the advantages of Community products, especially in terms of quality, hygiene, food safety, nutrition, labelling, animal welfare or environment-friendliness.

These measures can amongst others also cover participation at events and fairs, information campaigns on the Community system of protected designations of origin (PDOs), protected geographical indications (PGIs) and traditional speciality guaranteed (TSGs) and of organic farming. Information campaigns on the Community system of quality wines produced in specified regions (QWPSR) and studies of new markets are also among the possibilities.

The EU can finance certain specific measures (information on EU quality and labelling systems, high-level visits, studies) at 100 per cent. Other measures should only be part-financed (e.g. 50%) by the EU, the remainder being covered by the professional/inter-professional organisations proposing them and by the Member States concerned.

Member States have to send the Commission the list of programmes and implementing bodies they have selected and a copy of each programme not later than 30 April each year. The Commission evaluates the programmes and decides on their eligibility. The Commission Regulation also lists the third-country markets where promotion measures can be carried out and the products, which can be covered by these promotion measures.