Strawberries are among the products listed in Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 2200/96 for which standards must be adopted. Commission Regulation (EEC) No 899/87 of 30 March 1987 laying down quality standards for cherries and strawberries3, as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 888/974, has been amended and can no longer ensure legal clarity.

For clarity, the rules on strawberries should be separated from those on other products under Regulation (EEC) No 899/87. On this occasion, in the interest of preserving transparency on the world market, account should be taken of the standard for strawberries recommended by the Working Party on Standardisation of Perishable Produce and Quality Development of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE). The rules concerning strawberries should therefore be recast and Regulation (EEC) No 899/87 amended accordingly.

Application of new standards should remove products of unsatisfactory quality from the market, bring production into line with consumer requirements and facilitate trade based on fair competition, thereby helping to improve profitability.

The standards are applicable at all marketing stages. Long-distance transport, storage over a certain period and the various processes the products undergo may cause some degree of deterioration owing to the biological development of the products or their perishable nature. Account should be taken of such deterioration when applying the standard at the marketing stages following dispatch. As products in the ‘Extra’ Class have to be particularly carefully sorted and packaged, only lack of freshness and turgidity is to be taken into account in their case.

Sufficient maturity should be one of the minimum requirements for strawberries. Existing scientific and technical data do not permit reliable and objective criteria for assessing this requirement to be defined.

The marketing without calyx of strawberries of certain varieties that easily lose their calyx at harvest is traditional in the region of production in Finland and in Denmark. These two Member States have, in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 2200/96, requested that strawberries produced and consumed in those regions should not have to comply with the standards. This Regulation should therefore include a derogation to that effect.

The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Management Committee for Fresh Fruit and Vegetables,