From the International Business Times:
On 29 September, the EU launched a €165m (USD $210m, £130m) fund for perishable fruit and vegetables. Despite the UK having zero imports of fruit to Russia, UK farmers qualify for the compensation due to the surplus of fruit and vegetables the ban creates, which has driven prices down.
"We're seeing a price depression. Growers can't sell their crops and the UK government is not allowing our producers to compete on a level-playing field by taking up the EU option," Chris Hartfield, horticultural policy adviser at the National Farmers' Union (NFU), told IBTimes UK.
The NFU believes that the amount of funds available (which would cover crop surpluses up to 3,000 tonnes), coupled with the administrative cost of retrieving the funds from the EU, has led the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) to reject the EU's offer.
For more info, visit the International Business Times' website.
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