Marketing standards in the fruit and vegetable sector

This study had two objectives: first, to determine to what extent specific marketing standards for fruit and vegetables in the EU are useful for producers, traders, packers and retailers and, second, to assess the validity of the arguments against or in favour of repealing specific marketing standards.

The study is composed of two parts covering distinct products, countries and periods:

- First part : impact assessment of the repealing of the specific marketing standards for 3 products in 5 countries. The products taken into account are the carrot (CN code 0706 10 00, varieties grown from Daucus carota L, to be supplied fresh), the melon (CN code 0807 19 00, varieties grown from Cucumis melo L, to be supplied fresh), and the cultivated mushroom (CN code 0709 51 00, strains grown from the genus Agaricus, to be supplied fresh). The countries concerned are Germany, France, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom. The study period begins the 1st of July 2009, which is the date of the repealing, and lasts until March 2010.

- Second part: impact assessment of the application of the specific marketing standard in the apple market in Poland. It consists in comparing the period prior to the accession of Poland to the European Union (1st of May 2004) to the following period (1st of May 2004-2009).

The methodology is based on an analysis of national and European statistics, analysis of the applicable EU legislation on marketing standards, a literature review concerning the changes observed on the market related to the products concerned by this study, more than 100 face to face interviews and a large mail survey among operators in the 5 countries covered by the study. Furthermore, two scenarios have been defined in order to comprehend the potential future effects.