The European Commission has announced that it will provide financial support to producers of perishable fruit & vegetables, who stand to lose out as a result of this month's Russian import ban.

Russia announced a retaliatory ban on food imports from the EU, United States and Australia on 7^th August, in response to sanctions put in place over Russia's activities in the Ukraine.

As growers are into full harvesting season, and have little hope of finding alternative markets for their produce in time to sell this year, the Commission announced a budget of €125 million (£100m) would go towards helping producers of tomatoes, carrots, cabbage, cauliflowers, cucumbers and gherkins, mushrooms, apples, peppers, pears, and berries and soft fruits. The money will come out of the CAP emergency measures mechanism.

Commenting on the decision, EU agriculture minister Dacian Cioloș said, "Taking into account the market situation following the Russian restrictions on imports of EU agricultural products, with effect from today, I am triggering CAP emergency measures which will reduce overall supply of a number of fruit and vegetable products on the European market as and when price pressures become too great in the coming months.

"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. Acting early will provide an efficient support to the price paid to producers on the internal market, help the market adjust and be cost effective."

Measures under the mechanism will include market withdrawals and compensation for non-harvesting and green harvesting. The measures will be retroactively effective from 18^th August, so any produce withdrawn from Monday onwards will be covered.

The Commission said it would follow developments closely and will not hesitate to step in to help any other sector affected by the ban. The measures announced on Monday are set to last until November.

Monday's measures come after the Commission announced support for stone fruit growers, after markets for peaches and nectarines had been "hard hit by unfavourable weather conditions," which were compounded by additional pressure from the Russian ban.