France is stepping up cargo checks on trucks carrying fruit over the border from Spain in what is increasingly looking like a “peach war” between the EU neighbors, reports the Tapei Times.
In the past two weeks, 150 trucks have been stopped and 10 infractions recorded, the French Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry on Monday said on receiving French fruit growers who have complained of what they see as unfair “dumping” of produce in their home market.
France’s operation to make sure the trucks “respect the rules for the sale of fruit and vegetables” will continue in the coming weeks, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Stephane Le Foll said after the meeting.
He added that the European Commission had been asked by France, Spain, Greece and Italy to consider putting in place “exceptional market-managing measures” in the sector.
The French fruit-growers’ anger is boiling over amid fears that their industry is on the verge of disappearing entirely because of diving prices. Farmland across France given over to growing peaches and nectarines has halved in size over the past decade.
Luc Barbier, head of the French fruitgrowers’ federation FNPF, said that the conflict between French and Spanish producers has never been so bad.
Read more of this AFP report published by the Tapei Times.