The role of producer organisations in the functioning of the common market organisation for fresh fruit and vegetables and product market price formation in the EU

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union (EU) is a policy that has been implemented for about half a century and has reached the present day through a series of reforms. The CAP serves to provide financial support to producers and to increase the quality of their products and stabilize their prices through the EU's Common Market Organization (CMO) for fresh fruits and vegetables. Within these regulations, producer organizations are encouraged to take a role to assist producers in jointly marketing and distributing their products. This way, producers gain a stronger bargaining position. The aim of this study is to examine the effects of producer organizations in making the sector more competitive and market-oriented, reducing income fluctuations, promoting environmentally friendly agriculture, and the formation of the product's market price. Therefore, the legal structure of EC Regulation No 2200/96, which covers the EU's fresh fruit and vegetable sector, has been analyzed in detail. In addition, this study also addresses the agricultural structure of the Union and the role of agriculture in the Union economy to understand the reasons for the change in EU agricultural policies, and the agricultural structure of Turkey, a candidate for the EU, and its harmonization efforts with the CAP. It is envisaged that the existing producer organizations need to be redefined within a structure similar to the EU for the implementation of the fresh fruit and vegetable CMO in Turkey.