STONE FRUIT CONTACT GROUP FROM SPAIN, FRANCE AND ITALY HOLD MEETING IN BOLOGNA

The Hispanic-French Contact Group of Stone Fruit, to which Italy was formally incorporated, met for the first time in this country, more specifically in Bologna, on Tuesday 6 July, in order to analyse the evolution of the campaign as well as the implementation of prevention and crisis management measures in the CMO fruit and vegetable framework.

In the meeting, FEPEX reiterated the need to improve the coordination of management of the campaign and the information about its development, due to the impact Italy has in the communitarian market of stone fruit, especially nectarines.
The Hispanic-French Contact Group of Stone Fruit is formed of producers in France, Spain and Italy as well as government representatives from these three countries.

According to European forecasts at the start of the campaign, Italy will produce 756,670 tonnes of nectarines this year, concentrated in the Emilia Romagna region in the south of the country. Italy leads European nectarine production followed by Spain, France and Greece.

Intra-community trade of nectarines in 2009 stood at 621,279 tonnes, of which 307,670 tonnes were exported by Spain and 229,560 tonnes by Italy. In terms of peach trade across Europe in 2009, a total of 355,449 tonnes were produced, of which 205,966 tonnes were exported by Spain and 91,663 tonnes by Italy.