The European Commission this week introduced emergency measures to prevent a collapse in the market for perishable fruit and vegetables in the wake of the Russian ban on food imports from the EU.

On Monday, EU agriculture and rural development commissioner Dacian Ciolos triggered emergency measures which will reduce the overall supply of a number of fruit and vegetable products.

“All farmers of the concerned products – whether in producer organisations or not – will be eligible to take up these market support measures,” he said.

The products concerned by the measures include tomatoes, carrots, white cabbage, peppers, cauliflowers, cucumbers, mushrooms, apples, pears, red fruits, grapes and kiwis.

The exceptional measures will include market withdrawals, especially for free distribution, compensation for non-harvesting and green harvesting, which involves leaving the crop in the ground or on the tree. The measures will apply until the end of November, with an expected budget of €125 million.

Farm ministers will meet in Brussels on 2 September for an extraordinary council meeting to examine further policy responses.

A spokesman for Ciolos said that products such as cheese and pigmeat are “less urgent” as these can be taken off the market and put into cold storage (funded through private storage aid) for a couple of months.

Agra Facts reported that the Dutch delegation was vocal that its dairy sector has already taken a hit, calling for immediate compensation for dairy farmers. But other delegations urged caution before compensating farmers for any losses incurred.

The Latvian delegation called on the Commission to reinstate export refunds for concerned products, suspend the superlevy fine for the last quota year and review the level of public intervention prices and private storage aid to ease the pressure on farmers.