The UK fresh produce industry has called on The European Commission and German authorities to provide UK businesses hit by the E. coli outbreak with “full and immediate” compensation.
Produce suppliers across Europe have witnessed a decline in sales in the wake of Germany’s E. coli outbreak, which has now been linked to bean sprouts grown on a single German farm.
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Ahead of a meeting of EU ministers to discuss compensation, scheduled for today (14 June), UK industry body The Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC) has insisted that Germany and Europe should bear the brunt of the costs associated with the scare.
“The UK fresh produce industry suffered significant losses and a drop in consumption of salad products due to unfounded and premature claims made by the German authorities of a link to fresh fruit and vegetables,” said FPC chief executive Nigel Jenney.
“We are demanding that both the German authorities and the European Commission provide full and immediate compensation to UK businesses, which are suffering from their incompetence in handling this serious outbreak.”
A spokesperson for the FPC told just-food that the extent of the produce industry’s losses currently remained “unclear”.
“However, we are getting reports from our members of a 20-30% drop in sales volumes for salad products,” the spokesperson added.
Jenny also slammed the Commission’s proposals to launch a Europe-wide promotional campaign to support the fresh produce industry this autumn as “far too little and far too late”.
“Now the Commission expects the industry to pay up to half the costs of a campaign which won’t get off the ground until autumn. Expecting the industry to cover the cost of the German authorities’ incompetence just adds salt to the wound,” he said.
