Fewer harmful phytopathogenic organisms entered the European Union via imports of agricultural products from third countries, according to the latest activity report of the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed, which shows that in 2015 customs authorities detected over 7,000 cases of products not meeting the legal requirements.
The report, prepared by the European Commission, reveals that only 2,100 of these cases were related to the detection of organisms considered harmful by phytosanitary authorities. Most of them originated from several countries: Ghana, Uganda, Laos, Bangladesh, Kenya and Thailand, and are most commonly found in fruits and vegetables. Violations were detected in peppers from Africa and citrus fruits imported from Uruguay.
Meanwhile, there was an increase in the number of cases of incorrectly filled or missing documents and health certificates. Furthermore, the processing of some documents is taking more than two weeks, as criticised by experts of the European Commission.
