EU compensates fruit and veg growers hit by Russian ban
Dutch peppers: Withdrawing some produce from sale is meant to prevent the price crashing
The European Commission has announced emergency EU funding of 125m euros (£100m; $170m) for fruit and vegetable growers hit by Russia's ban on most imported Western food.
The funding is compensation for fresh produce which will not be sold. Instead it will be distributed free to schools, hospitals and other institutions.
Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, grapes and pears are included in the scheme.
Russia has banned many food imports, angry at EU-US sanctions over Ukraine.
Last week the Commission announced plans to pay peach and nectarine growers for 10% of their crop, and the new funding expands that aid to many more producers.
The crops affected are those in full season now, with no storage option for most of them and no immediate alternative market available, a statement from Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos said.
Ruinous emergencies
"All farmers of the concerned products - whether in producer organisations or not - will be eligible to take up these market support measures where they see fit," he said.
The measures will apply until the end of November.
The compensation will come from a special 420m-euro fund set up under the current Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), for farmers facing potentially ruinous emergencies.
On 7 August, Russia declared a one-year embargo on meat, fish, dairy products, fruit and vegetables from the EU, the United States, Canada, Australia and Norway in retaliation for Western economic sanctions.
EU fruit exports to Russia last year were worth 1.07bn euros (£855m; $1.4bn) - the biggest agricultural export sector, ahead of dairy produce and meat.
Lithuania, Poland, Finland and Denmark each face losses running into hundreds of millions of euros because of the Russian ban, the Financial Times reports.
The food types covered by the new compensation scheme are: tomatoes, carrots, white cabbage, peppers, cauliflowers, cucumbers and gherkins, mushrooms, apples, pears, red berries, table grapes and kiwis.bbc
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