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Report on residues, Egypt's "deficient control"
Egypt
Friday 13 July 2007
The European Commission's Directorate General for Public Health and Consumer Protection DG SANCO has published a report about pesticide controls on plant food products exported from Egypt to the EU.
According to the document's results, the Country has "a deficient control system of pesticide residues on plant food product" and it "recommends that it improves this control system for fruit and vegetables exported to the EU".
This situation considered, SANCO's document make three recommendations to Egypt regarding pesticide residues:
. Egypt should improve its control system on fruit and vegetables destined to exportation to EU to guarantee that they meet with the Community legislation;
. Egypt should expand the reach of the analysis and keep on improving and implementing quality control systems in pesticide residues' laboratories responsible for exports' control, as well as improving the effectiveness of controls on such residues;
. Egypt should systematically follow every single notification issued by the Rapid Food Alert System of the EU whenever Egyptian products are involved, taking them into account when taking relevant measures.
The report has been compiled thanks to a mission taking place in Egypt in January 2007 commissioned by the Directorate General for Public Health and Consumer Protection.
According to Eurostat data, the Community imports of fruit and vegetables in 2006 increased to 459.008 tons, of which 294.118 tons were vegetables and 164.890 were fruit.
The UK, Italy and Low Countries are the Countries importing the most volumes of fruit and vegetables from Egypt. Potato is the main product imported by the EU, followed by citrus fruits, grapes and green beans. It is worth highlighting the strong growth of table grapes' imports, while citrus fruits are falling down.
According to the document's results, the Country has "a deficient control system of pesticide residues on plant food product" and it "recommends that it improves this control system for fruit and vegetables exported to the EU".
This situation considered, SANCO's document make three recommendations to Egypt regarding pesticide residues:
. Egypt should improve its control system on fruit and vegetables destined to exportation to EU to guarantee that they meet with the Community legislation;
. Egypt should expand the reach of the analysis and keep on improving and implementing quality control systems in pesticide residues' laboratories responsible for exports' control, as well as improving the effectiveness of controls on such residues;
. Egypt should systematically follow every single notification issued by the Rapid Food Alert System of the EU whenever Egyptian products are involved, taking them into account when taking relevant measures.
The report has been compiled thanks to a mission taking place in Egypt in January 2007 commissioned by the Directorate General for Public Health and Consumer Protection.
According to Eurostat data, the Community imports of fruit and vegetables in 2006 increased to 459.008 tons, of which 294.118 tons were vegetables and 164.890 were fruit.
The UK, Italy and Low Countries are the Countries importing the most volumes of fruit and vegetables from Egypt. Potato is the main product imported by the EU, followed by citrus fruits, grapes and green beans. It is worth highlighting the strong growth of table grapes' imports, while citrus fruits are falling down.
