Producer Organisations - abbreviated POs - are mergers of farmers for fruit and vegetables that have the following aims:

to concentrate supply in order to strengthen the position of fruit and vegetable producers in the agri-food chain;

to plan production, to adapt supply to meet demand, as much for quality as for quantity and to prevent and manage crises;

to improve the competitiveness of production and marketing on the domestic and world market, by both controlling production costs and focusing more on the market;

to increase the value of commodities through processing and marketing

to increase the focus on fruit and vegetables in our diets;

to encourage production methods which respect the environment and landscape.

In Austria there are 11 recognized POs for fruit and vegetables. In entire Europe there exist about 1.500 POs for f&v that generate a value of marketed production (VMP) of approximately 14 billions € per annum.