Belgian fruit farmers hit hard by Russian import ban

The Belgian fruit sector is being hard hit by the Russian import ban: due to a surplus of fruit on the European market, fruit farmers have seen the price of their apples and pears drop to half their normal price for this time of year, reports De Tijd.

“Owing to the crisis with Russia, prices have fallen to their lowest point in a decade,” said Christian Gustin, commercial director of Belgian fruit cooperative Belgische Fruitveiling in Sint-Truiden. "Producers are now getting less than half of what they got in this period for their apples and pears last year. Apple and pear growers take on average 25 euro cents per kilo, which is not even enough to pay their expenses."

Philipe Appeltans, general secretary of Belgian horticultural cooperative Verbond van Belgische Tuinbouwveilingen, says the price of apples and pears has fallen by 40% to 50% compared to their normal price at this time of year. Although there has been a good harvest this year, the price decline has been mainly caused by the import ban that Russia placed on a number of European food products on 7 August.