E coli: farmers’ aid deal agreed as toll rises to 26

Compensation package finalised by European Commission will cost more than €200m in June The European commission has finalised a deal to help farmers hit by the E coli crisis that will cost the bloc more than €200m (£178m) in compensation payments to the end of this month alone. The package came as Germany, the centre of the outbreak of a new and virulent strain of the bacterium, said two more people had died, taking the toll to 26. But while there were also 300 more E coli cases reported, the German health minister said the situation was gradually improving. “I cannot yet give an all-clear, but after an analysis of the numbers there’s reason for hope,” Daniel Bahr told ARD TV. “The numbers are continuously falling – which none the less means that there can still be new cases and that one unfortunately has to expect new deaths too – but overall new infections are clearly going down.” Vegetable growers, particularly those farming salad crops, have been severely hit after German officials blamed first cucumbers from Spain and then bean sprouts farmed in northern Germany. Neither turned out to be the confirmed source and scientists now say it is possible this might never be identified. An initial compensation plan, announced on Tuesday by the EU’s agriculture commissioner, Dacian Ciolos , proposed giving farmers 30% of the market price of unsold crops, up to a total of €150m. This was immediately rejected as woefully insufficient by Spain, France and Italy. Ciolos unveiled a more generous scheme on Wednesday which would see all affected producers get 50% of market price, costing €210m until the end of June. In addition, the estimated one-third of farmers who are members of national producer organisations will get another 20%, funded 50/50 by the EU and the organisations. “We are doing as much as we can with the current financial means available,” Ciolos said, conceding that the total bill could rise further. “We don’t know how things are going to evolve. We cannot predict. At the end of June we will see where we stand.” The hope for the EU is that as the outbreak recedes, consumers – at least outside Germany – will resume their usual shopping habits. The plan is expected to be ratified at a meeting of officials next Tuesday, despite the likelihood that Spain and several other nations will vote against it. Germany’s national disease control centre, the Robert Koch Institute, has given a more mixed assessment of the outbreak, saying the declining trend could simply be because people were not eating the raw products spreading the bacterium. The number of reported cases in Germany had risen by more than 300 to 2,648, it said, with nearly 700 of those affected by a serious complication that can cause kidney failure. Germany faces criticism for its reaction to the outbreak, for a perceived delay in spotting the initial pattern of illness as well as twice public identifying the cause without proof. E coli Germany European commission Europe France Spain Italy Peter Walker guardian.co.uk

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