The EU protects EU growers of 15 kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables against internationalcompetition not only by the means of ad valorem tariffs of up to 20%, but also by the EUentry-price system (EPS), which is designed to restrict imports below the product-specific,politically designated...

China has become a major exporter of fresh fruits and vegetables in recent years. Between 2002and 2006, China’s fresh fruit and vegetable exports rose continuously, more than doubling in valueto reach nearly $5 billion US in 2006. The net trade position for fresh fruits and vegetables hasalso...

The objective of this paper is to examine the status of labor-saving mechanization in U.S. fruitand vegetable harvesting. Fruit and vegetable harvest mechanization has several potentialadvantages: reduced harvest costs, eliminate problems associated with finding good qualityharvest labor, permit...

With a population of 82.5 million, the German market is the largest in the EU and therefore of specialinterest for the trade partners. Despite an unsatisfying economic development in the last years (lowestGDP growth in the EU and rising unemployment, see Table 9 in the annex) Germany is still a...