ISHS Acta Horticulturae 135: VII Symposium on Horticultural Economics, XXI IHC
EEC SURPLUSES OF APPLES AND PEARS - A PERSPECTIVE |
| Author: | L. Hinton |
| Abstract:
The paper demonstrates that surpluses of apples and pears in the EEC have not gone away. They will continue for several reasons which include the higher productivity of orchard trees and the assurance which market intervention gives to producers. The closed market of the EEC in apples and pears is supported by high reference prices and restraints on the imports of Southern hemisphere fruit. A Europe of twelve will raise apple production in the Nine by more than a third and increase pear production by half. Market intervention has come to stay because now the Northern producers are gaining from it just as much as Southern producers. Market demand is falling for both apples and pears. Does this mean that prices in the closed market are too high? What is emerging in the closed market is the latent superiority in production of the South due to comparative advantages in climate. This will increase when Spain and Portugal join the market. No doubt the consumer suffers from the closed market but it is unlikely that the present policy will change, while it is certain that EEC producers of apples and pears benefit. It can be argued that, as producers of high risk perennial crops, the apple and pear producers gain is fair, compared with other agricultural producers in the EEC who in fact gain considerably more. | |
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