Abstract:
The EC-market policy for fruit and vegetables is subject to growing criticism.
The main complaints are
- increasing protectionism
- increasing state expenditure and
- destruction of fruit and vegetables
on one hand and on the other hand
- low grower incomes
- large instability of the markets and
- inefficient production and market structures.
These problems, which will probably aggravate with the enlargement of the EC, call for a thorough analysis of costs and benefits of the EC-market policy.
In this paper some concepts and partial results of cost-benefit studies are discussed.
They are based on different studies, which have been conducted in the course of the last two years in the Institute for Horticultural Economics in Hannover.
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