U Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Phil Hogan said: "I welcome these new programmes, especially in the context of the recent market difficulties. Such programmes are important for establishing new market opportunities, in particular on non-EU markets, and increasing consumption of promoted products inside and outside the EU."

Primarily in the form of multi-annual promotional campaigns highlighting the advantages of EU products, the 60 selected programmes (from 199 offered) cover a wide range of product categories, notably those hit by recent market difficulties, such as dairy products, meat products and fresh/processed fruit and vegetables.

Out of the 60 selected programmes, 24 target the internal market and 36 target third countries and regions including China, Middle East, North America, South-East Asia, Japan, South Korea, Russia, and Australia. This shows the increasing emphasis agreed in the context of the reformed promotion policy on promoting EU products on third country.

All of the schemes under this wave are "simple" programmes (organised in one Member State), which come in addition to the so-called "multi" programmes (where organisations from different Member States come together to plan joint promotion schemes – and for which the level of EU support is higher) - six of which were identified earlier in the year and are likely to be finalised in the near future.

>> 60 approved "simple" programmes

Source: ec.europa.eu