As rotating President of the Agricultural and Fisheries Council, The Minister of Rural Development has convened a meeting of his EU colleagues for Tuesday June 7 in Luxembourg to analyse and discuss the effects of the German E. coli epidemic on the vegetable and fruit sector.

On Hungarian national MTV television's "Az Este" (Tonight) show, Sándor Fazekas also stated that Hungarian-grown fruit and vegetables are safe and continuously monitored, so consumer confidence in them has been shaken unfairly.

The Minister of Rural Development called on retailers, wholesalers, supermarket chains and multinationals to receive local growers' high quality, fresh produce, as it has now clearly emerged that the German infection was not caused by cucumbers.

Hungary is also hard hit by the fact that on Thursday Russia banned the import of vegetables from the European Union. 10-15 percent of Hungarian vegetable exports are bound for Russia.

On Thursday afternoon the European Council called on Russia to immediately lift the import ban as the measures are disproportionate and in contrary to the statutes of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). It is a well-known fact that Russia has been striving to become a member of the WTO for many years.

The Minister also stated that cucumbers are not being imported into Hungary at all, as local growers are fully capable of supplying the whole Hungarian market.

Since the beginning of the diarrhoea epidemic that has claimed several lives, although essentially limited to a certain area of Germany, there has been a perceptible decrease in demand throughout Europe for fresh fruit and vegetables.

The greatest damage is caused by the fact that we still do not know precisely what caused the epidemic and contradictory pieces of news continue to appear about the bacteria, but what is certain is that the spread of the infection has been stopped successfully.

(Press Office of the Ministry for Rural Development)