The European Commission has announced that it will launch new market observatories for wine, fruit and vegetables later this year.
The fruit and vegetable sectors collectively represent around 24.1 per cent of the value of the EU’s agricultural output while wine comprises 5.4 per cent; so both sectors are considered key to the greater European agricultural economy. In the wake of the successful establishment of market observatories for crops, sugar, meat and milk, the commission expects the new observatories to boost transparency and improve analysis of market trends and industry evolution for their respective sectors.
As the term “fruit and vegetables” encompasses a vast range of products, the fruit and vegetables observatory will initially focus on apples, citrus fruit, nectarines, peaches and tomatoes. The wine observatory is expected to cover all European varieties of wine; both were devised to enable their respective sectors adjust appropriately to volatility in the market, as well as increasing existing levels of transparency.
The two new market observatories will be available online along with previously established observatories. Their websites will provide a range of data from the wine, fruit and vegetable markets; as well as extensive market analysis from various sources, reports on the short term outlook for the sectors and medium term forecasts for market prospects.
As is already the case for the crops, dairy, sugar and meat market observatories, each new observatory will feature a board of market experts who will meet regularly in order to discuss the most recent data and the state of play of the markets.
The observatories will fall under the oversight of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, which covers all aspects of the Common Agricultural Policy and is responsible for devising and setting EU policy on matters pertaining to farming, agriculture and development of rural regions.
