Italy, Spain, France, Holland, Belgium and Poland are the six EU countries who decided to share a common platform to ask the EU Commission to support the export outside the European Union, a market where it is estimated 95% of new potential customers can be reached.
The document was signed in Bolzano during Interpoma, the international trade fair for apple firms, at a conference organized by Assomela and the alliance of agri-food cooperatives.
Italy is the second European producer -after Poland- of the apple sector, and that, along with kiwifruit, is one of the most strategic products for the export.
Davide Vernocchi, sector coordinator of the alliance of agri-food cooperatives, said: “There are still too many issues for the fruit and vegetables industry to get new commercial outlets. Every day European players have to cope with a series of obstacles, most of the time created by the importing countries, that require long and exhausting negotiations”.
