The new legal framework for the recognition as organization of fruit and vegetable producers of legal-business entities

Abstract

The well-known need for production’s integration and concentration mechanisms in the agri-food sector, advises to reflect on the peculiarity of Fruit and Vegetable Producers' Organizations (hereinafter OPFH). The Royal Decree 532 / 2017, of May 26, which regulates the recognition and operation of the Producers' Organizations of the Fruit and Vegetables sector, adapts our legislation to the new regulatory framework of the European Union. These OPFH, despite the fact that they provide multiple advantages for both fruit and vegetable producers and for market management, have not yet achieved the expected success.

This paper analyzes the core elements for obtaining the recognition as OPFH, highlighting the main novelties as well as the deficiencies present in the new regulation. Shortcomings could be due to thelack of full consolidation of this organizational figure, and therefore some proposals for improvement are presented to the newly established legal regime of the OPFH. In any case, cooperatives are established as the most appropriate legal form for the achievement of the objectives associated to the joint production and commercialization by the fruit and vegetable producers, although other legal forms as Agrarian Transformation Societies (hereinafter SAT) and commercial companies can also be recognized as OPFH