While the American fruit and vegetable industry worries about drought in California and consumers worry about low prices, European fruit farmers are asking the European Union for assistance due to high production and high prices.

In a letter sent to European Union Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Cioloș today, Copa, the largest European farm organization, and Cogeca, the representative of European farm co-ops, warned that a serious crisis is hitting the European market for summer fruits, especially peaches and nectarines, and called for action to be taken immediately.

“Market returns for peaches and nectarines finally crumbled in June, with prices 30-50 percent less than those seen in 2013,” Copa-Cogeca Secretary General Pekka Pesonen wrote Cioloș.

“This was a result of two key factors — high production volumes for some varieties and regions coupled with poor weather conditions, causing the fruit to ripen at different times and consumption to drop in some parts of Europe as a result of the lack of heat,” Pesonen wrote.

“This is an exceptional pan-European crisis, felt in all producer member states, and will worsen during the rest of the marketing year unless action is taken.”

Pesonen also urged Cioloș to adopt “exceptional measures: to withdraw produce from the market to rebalance supply and demand.

“We believe that a small contribution from the crisis reserve would help the sector to recover and prevent producers from going out of business,” Pesonen said. “This would benefit the economy, especially in southern Europe which is currently undergoing a severe crisis.”