February 15 2007, 14:01

Not Chinese dumping but the ineffective production affected Polish strawberry producers - the European Commission concludes

According to information provided by Forbes.com, the European Union is close to cancel the anti-dumping tariff for frozen strawberry import from China. Thus the less favorable circumstances can be created for the regions, which are trying to protect themselves from Chinese produce, Asian Wall Street Journal informs with the reference to the European Commission.

The report of the European Commission states that Polish strawberry producers (who initiated the adoption of the tariff) have suffered from the bad weather, high labor costs and inefficient production, but not because of the competition with China.

The report will be sent to the official bodies responsible for the EU external trade for the further consideration.

We remind that, responding to the Association of Polish producers of flash frozen products, on the 10th of October 2006 the European Commission decided to set up the anti-dumping tariff rate for frozen strawberry import from China; the new tariff came into effect starting from October 18th 2006. Now the frozen strawberry from China is liable to the additional tariff rate worth to 34.2% plus the regular tariff rate for frozen strawberry. However, the EU is to make the final decision regarding the tariff level before April the 18th 2007. At the present moment the representatives of the concerned Polish organizations try to prove the necessity to extend the effective tariff rates or even to fix the rates on the regular basis.

Polish producers have faced the serious competition with China for the first time in 2004 when the price for Chinese frozen strawberry was around EUR0.6/kg during the strawberry harvesting period in Poland. The strawberry production cost was EUR0.55/kg that time in the country. To compete with China, Polish producers had to sell their produce at a loss (for less than EUR1/kg in 2004). The situation deteriorated in 2005 when Chinese suppliers started to supply strawberry for EUR0.46/kg; as a result, the strawberry production significantly declined in Poland. If the anti-dumping tariff is effective, Poland hopes to restore the feasibility of strawberry production and to build up the product export to the EU market.