Netherlands says EU deal for salad exports slump is not enough

The Netherlands and Spain have told the European Commission the €150m compensation package for farmers affected by the E.coli outbreak in Germany is not enough.


Agriculture commissioner Dacian Ciolos has been told to go back and renegotiate the deal. ‘He had better come back with a considerable amount of money. If he does not listen, he will have major political problems,’ Dutch farm minister Henk Bleker is quoted as saying in the Telegraaf.
The Dutch farming organisation LTO has described the €150m package as ‘a tip’.

Wrongly linked

Ciolos’s offer is based on compensating farmers 30% for the damage suffered after salad produce was wrongly linked to the outbreak, which has killed 25 people so far.
Bleker aims for an 80% to 90% deal or up to €300m, the paper says. Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, Poland and Greece support this position.
LTO Nederland claims the damage to the Dutch market gardening industry is running at around €50m a week. In particular cucumber exports have collapsed.

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