The European Commission has approved 20 programmes to promote agricultural products in third countries with a total budget of €30.1 million. The programmes will run for a period of three years and will focus in providing information or promoting agricultural products and food in third countries.

€30.1 million is the funding contribution approved by the Commission to support for the promotion of EU agricultural products. The funding will be distributed among 20 programmes which will run for a period of three years. The selected programmes cover fresh and processed fruit and vegetables, milk and milk products, PDOs (Protected Designations of Origin), PGIs (Protected Geographical Indications) and TSGs (Traditional Specialities Guaranteed), organic food and farming, olive oil, wine and spirits, cereals and rice, horticulture and meat.

The Council decided in 2000 that the EU could assist in financing measures that provide information on or promote agricultural products and food on the EU single market and in third countries. Within the information and promotion scheme and in addition to programmes already accepted for co financing in 2011, targeting the internal market and those adopted in November to fight the consequences of the E-Coli crisis in the sector of fresh fruit and vegetables, the Commission services received, end of June 2011, 31 programmes targeting third countries. Out of those, 20 programmes were selected for co financing for a total budget of €60.2 million, with an EU contribution of €30.1 million.

The activities financed can consist of public relations, promotional or publicity campaigns, in particular highlighting the advantages of EU products, especially in terms of quality, food safety and hygiene, nutrition, labelling, animal welfare or environmentally-friendly production methods. These measures can also cover participation at events and fairs, information campaigns on the EU system of protected designations of origin (PDO), protected geographical indications (PGI) and traditional specialities guaranteed (TSG), information on EU quality and labelling systems and organic farming, and information campaigns on the EU system of quality wines produced in specified regions (QWPSR).