The EC will standardize phytosanitary controls in European ports

The heads of Plant Health and Crisis Management in Food, Plants and Animals of the European Commission, Bernard Van Goethem and Dorothée André, confirmed Friday the Secretary General of LA UNIÓ, Carles Peris, and the Socialist MEP in Immaculate Rodriguez-Piñero , that as of December 14 and within a global strategy of “hardening in pest control procedures” a new community regulation will be approved that will harmonize and strengthen phytosanitary controls in European ports.

The European Commission has confirmed this measure during the meeting held with LA UNIÓ and with the PSPV MEP to analyze the latest interceptions of pests in citrus fruits from South Africa and Argentina and in which European leaders have also expressed concern about the possibility that pests such as Thaumatotibia leucotreta (False Moth) or Phyllosticta citricarpa (causes the Black Spot) can affect the Valencian countryside.

From the European Commission they have shown “willing to work hand in hand with the sector to protect the producer sector” and have committed “to study all possible options to stop the entry of more pests” despite the fact that LA UNIÓ has He stressed the “effectiveness of establishing a mandatory cold treatment for all importing countries and products”.

In any case, during the meeting Dorothée André has confirmed that in the last year the budget of the European Commission for the prevention and fight against pests has been increased; Inspector training in European ports has been improved and the conditions required for third countries to receive the relevant authorizations to import into Europe have been tightened.

Thus, they have announced that since September 1, exporting countries must send documentary evidence prior to imports that demonstrate the effectiveness of the procedures used in the fight against pests. Phytosanitary information that the Commission reviews and subsequently shares with each of the Member States “so that they verify that they are strictly adhered to in imported products during inspections carried out when arriving at European ports”.

The European Commission has also implemented a monthly monitoring system for these phytosanitary certificates “to quickly correct possible deficiencies and involve Member States in the permanent control of their veracity”; as well as a “quick alert” system whereby from the moment in which pest interceptions are detected in an EU port “the European authorities can collect the relevant information within ten to twelve days, stop the entry to the market of said fruit, to detect the original field, to prohibit the shipments of the same one and to carry out a review of the adjacent fields ”, as it has already happened in the last weeks with the interceptions of Argentina and South Africa.

“There is still a lot to do and the reality is that we continue to suffer the entry of pests in Europe, but at least the European authorities have shown their total willingness to improve the inspection and control mechanisms necessary to avoid a situation that can be catastrophic for our sector ”, both Rodríguez-Piñero and Peris have pointed out after warning of the“ high cost and loss of competitiveness for farmers to fight against these pests ”.

Carles Peris points out that, “unlike other producing areas, the Valencian Community is characterized by the health and quality of our fruit, a difference that we have to keep showing zero tolerance with pests”, and states that “the insistence and the The joint work of the last months has allowed the Commission to be fully aware of our claims and that in the coming months it will carry out a comprehensive reform of the control procedures, on which we will be very vigilant ”.

“Since 2015, more than 140 contaminated shipments have been detected, the last eleven during this summer, which shows that our citrus sector is exposed to an extreme risk that is urgently needed to fight before the situation is irreversible,” he said, so they have transferred to the Commission the need for the measures adopted “not to remain in mere words and to be effective because of the risk of increasing plagues for biodiversity and because of the high cost for public administrations and for farmers who It is the fight against these plant diseases. ”

Report on Prohibited Active Matters in the EU

During the meeting from LA UNIÓ, a comparative report on the differences that exist currently has been delivered to the team of the General Directorate of Health Among the active materials of phytosanitary products used by South Africans and Europeans, “which leaves our citrus growers in a clear position of disadvantage and unfair competition.” Report that the Commission has undertaken to study, with special attention to those hazardous materials for health and biodiversity that have been detected in percentages higher than those allowed.