HC Deb 20 June 1985 vol 81 c209W
30. Mr. Heathcoat-Amory

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what regulations exist to prevent dumping of soft fruit on the British market.

Mrs. Fenner

The European Community's general anti-dumping provisions, which are set out in regulation 2176/84, apply to soft fruit and soft fruit products. Further European Community regulations provide for frontier measures to be applied in the event of serious disturbance of markets in soft fruit and certain soft fruit products. The products concerned, which can be imported only under licence, are frozen and pulped strawberries and raspberries, and preparations of raspberries. In addition to these regulations, the Government have pressed the European Commission to introduce measures to prevent imports of low priced semi-processed soft fruit from eastern Europe. As a result, the 1984–85 agreement between the European Commission and the Polish authorities that Polish exporters would maintain prices of frozen and pulped strawberries and frozen blackcurrants at those ruling in intra-Community trade has been renewed for a further year. For frozen and pulped raspberries, a new agreement has been concluded for 1985–86 which also covers trade with Yugoslavia and under which the exporters have undertaken to increase free-at-frontier prices for pulp to 569 ecu (£352) per tonne and for frozen raspberries to 829 ecu (£513) per tonne in the case of Poland, and 1,290 ecu (£798) in the case of Yugoslavia.