Talking Dutch: Let them eat pears
The people of Flanders have their own way of dealing with Russia’s ban on EU fruits and vegetables
Peerfie solution
It all started a few weeks ago when Russia announced that it was banning the import of fruit and vegetables from European countries in retaliation to EU sanctions. The ban was expected to hit several sectors badly, such as apple growers in Poland, olive farmers in Greece and, closer to home, pear growers in Flanders.
But then someone came up with an apparently simple solution – als we zelf die peren kopen die voor Rusland bedoeld zijn, is de kwestie opgelost – if we buy the pears that were meant for Russia, the problem is solved, noted De Standaard.
So that’s what lots of people did. Belgen reageren massaal op de oproep om meer eigen fruit te eten, na de invoerboycot door de Russische president Poetin – Huge numbers of Belgians responded to the call to eat more of our own fruit, following the import ban by the Russian president Putin, the paper reported.
De verkoop is verdubbeld – the sales have doubled, according to the Limburg Fruit Association. De klanten willen de Belgische producten steunen – Customers want to support Belgian products, confirmed a spokesperson for supermarket chain Carrefour.
An extra pear a week
The idea then spread to the small town of Peer in Limburg province, whose name means, literally, Pear. Ook de burgemeester van Peer steunt de fruitboeren die getroffen worden door de Russische sancties – the mayor of Peer has also come out in support of the fruit farmers hit by the Russian sanctions.
In een filmpje op YouTube roept Steven Matheï de inwoners van zijn stad op om massaal peren te kopen en te eten en een foto daarvan op sociale media te zetten – In a clip on YouTube, Steven Matheï called on the residents of his town to buy and eat as many pears as they can and to post a photograph showing them doing so on social media. The video is called Perenaar eet peren – People of Peer eat pears. They responded enthusiastically, as Matheï's picture above shows.
The story spread to the Netherlands where it was picked up by De Volkskrant. Elke Belg zou een jaar lang ongeveer één peer per week extra moeten eten om het verlies van de Russische export te compenseren – every Belgian has to eat roughly one extra pear a week for a year to compensate for the loss of exports to Russia, the Dutch newspaper said.
Now we just need to buy more Greek olive oil and Polish apples.
Photo courtesy Het Nieuwsblad
