Producer organisations that are meant to give Europe's fruit and vegetable growers bargaining power against large retailers are losing ground, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) said this week, blaming uneven national support, complicated EU rules and a European Commission that has not responded to the sector's difficulties.

The organisations let growers sell together, invest jointly in equipment and infrastructure, raise product quality and negotiate better terms with buyers. Yet their market share has been falling, and the number of member farmers dropped by 39% between 2012 and 2023. The Commission counted 1,488 recognised fruit and vegetable producer organisations in the EU in 2024, with 187,372 members.

The groups received €1.06 billion in EU support in 2023, which they spent on modernising equipment, automating production, saving energy and water, obtaining quality certificates, improving packaging and logistics and developing consumer-facing quality labels. Because the funding is tied to the value of marketed production, it also pushes organisations to grow turnover and plan production around demand.

Even so, the auditors found that in most member states producer organisations are neither large nor well known enough to bargain from strength. Only in Belgium and the Netherlands are they economically significant; the larger groups there can offer bigger volumes and a wider range, which helps them at the negotiating table.

The differences between countries are stark. Some have no recognised producer organisations at all; among the rest, the share of production sold through them ranges from 0.8% in Slovenia to 86% in Denmark. History and culture explain part of that, but national choices matter too: some authorities actively advise the groups and fund a broad range of actions, while others apply stricter eligibility rules or offer less help.

"If producer organisations are to help farmers to stand up to large buyers and provide consumers with a wide variety of European fruit and vegetables, the rules must be simpler, national support more consistent, and membership more attractive," said Keit Pentus-Rosimannus, the ECA member in charge of the audit. The court warned that the patchwork "creates an uneven playing field within the single market" and can put farmers off joining or applying for EU funding.

The auditors concluded that although the Commission has identified some of these problems, it has not done enough to fix them or to help member states compare and align how they run the scheme. The report was covered by Kathleen O'Sullivan for Agriland.

Source: Agriland