An Economic Appraisal of the EEC Fruit and Vegetable Grading Legislation

The economic impact of the compulsory grading legislation imposed by the EC is analysed. It is shown that the system imposed certain and immediate costs on producers and consumers, while any possible benefits were uncertain and distant. The system imposed bore no relation to the realities of the marketing systems for fruit and vegetables. There was no attempt whatsoever to base the standards imposed on market research related to consumer preferences or marketing systems. There was no attempt whatsoever to do economic analysis of the standards and grading system in relation to the market. There was a failure to realize that wholesalers, shops and consumers necessarily had different quality criteria. Perhaps a third of the fruit and vegetables produced were dumped on purely cosmetic grounds.Eventually, thirty two years after this paper was written, the EC accepted this and implemented the changes recommended in this paper. At the time this was costing consumers more than £10 billion a year