Call for the EU to support the Italian horticultural sector

Subject: Call for the EU to support the Italian horticultural sector

The horticultural sector accounts for 5% of total agricultural production in Italy, involving some 23 000 companies and 100 000 workers.

This sector, as unfortunately other parts of the Italian economy, is in a very difficult situation because of the coronavirus pandemic, all the more so because recent provisions laid down by the Italian Government to limit the spread of the virus have led to the closure of florists and markets.

More specifically, the sector is a very seasonal one, in that some 90% of business takes place between the months of February and April. In springtime alone, 615 million pots, worth over EUR 800 million, are produced in Italy. The sales ban is thus leading to the collapse of the entire sector.

Can the Commission therefore say:

what instruments it intends to use to support this important agricultural sector;

whether it will consider providing specific funding to support horticultural companies, in order to enable them to pay their suppliers whilst at the same time protecting jobs?

Answer given by Mr Wojciechowski on behalf of the European Commission (26 May 2020)

The Commission can assure the Honourable Member that it is well aware of the seasonal character of the horticulture sector with peak production in March, April and May, the period during which greater part of the nursery production is sold in Italy and in Europe as a whole.

The Commission adopted a set of exceptional measures (1) designed to support the agricultural and horticultural sector, including a six-month derogation from Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union that allows operators in the live plants and flowers sector to adopt self-organisation market measures.

Furthermore, rural development support can be used to alleviate the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak. The Commission also put forward on 30 April 2020 a proposal to modify the Rural Development basic act, Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 (2).

The proposal aims at inserting a new measure that would allow Member States to pay a lump-sum to farmers and small agri-food businesses particularly affected by the COVID-19 crisis. It is now to the European Parliament and the Council to endorse this measure as swiftly as possible.

⋅1∙ https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_20_722

⋅2∙ OJ L 347, 20.12.2013.