The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the upcoming revision of the EU’s geographical indications legislation, which was announced as part of the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy. The European Commission aims to strengthen the legislative framework of geographical indication schemes and improve the schemes’ contribution to sustainable production. Interested stakeholders have until April 9, 2021 to respond to the consultation.

The EU’s 2020/21 (July/June) pear output is expected to be up 13% from last year, when production was at a record low, according to a USDA report. Production in Italy, the largest pear producing country in the EU, partly recovered this season due to favourable growing conditions. Similar good weather conditions, in combination with a slightly higher area harvested, also resulted in increased pear production in the Benelux countries. The taste, colour, and storage quality are good.

The EU’s 2020/21 apple crop is estimated to drop by 2%, according to USDA data, due to a combination of late spring frosts (Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary), alternate bearing (France, Spain, Portugal), poor pollination (Hungary), drought/heat (Belgium, Austria, Poland, UK), and hail damage (Hungary, Romania).

Photo: Cítricos Rosegar

© Christine Matthews (licensed under Creative Commons), source: www.geograph.org.uk

Russian President Vladimir Putin has extended the country’s embargo on food products from Western countries until the end of 2021. Putin stated that the ban is in place “to defend national interests” and prohibits most food products from nations penalising Moscow. The country has been particularly hit by EU sanctions following the Ukraine crisis and Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Photo: European Commission

The European Commission has imposed additional tariffs on a list of US products following the WTO ruling against US subsidies for Boeing. The move, announced on November 9th, includes an additional levy on imports from the US of citrus, dates and walnuts.

© Inter Bio Corse

The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the EU’s future action plan for the development of EU organic production. The action plan will complement the new legal framework for Organic Agriculture (Regulation (EU) 2018/848) that will enter into force on January 1st, 2022.

EU apple prices were well above the 5-year average at the start of the new marketing year on 1st August 2020, due to a smaller crop. The volume of the EU28 crop is expected to be about 10.79 million tons, according to WAPA data. The volume of the new crop is 1% below 2019’s small crop and 7% less than the 5-year reference average.