Spanish Farmers’ Union Pushes for Stricter Controls on Moroccan Produce Imports

Spanish farmers are once again attacking Moroccan products. They are exerting strong pressure on Pedro Sánchez for his government to intensify controls on imported foods, particularly those from "North Africa". "Representatives of farmers should be allowed to attend the sampling and communicate the results of product analyses," demands Luis Cortés, coordinator of Unión de Uniones, one of the main farmers’ unions. According to him, farmers do not trust the "procedures implemented by the government and demand to be able to control them," reports OK Diario.

The union leader would suspect preferential treatment for Moroccan products and demands that the products "be analyzed in exactly the same way as those produced by farmers in the European Union". The Spanish newspaper supports Luis Cortés by recalling that the increase in border controls with Morocco is one of the demands that farmers are defending during the demonstrations. The publication accuses the Spanish authorities of carrying out fewer or fewer inspections and allowing "the entry of foods whose pesticide levels exceed the limits set by European regulations".

To support its argument, the author of the article reveals that the Spanish newspaper has commissioned an analysis on Moroccan green beans that would contain 0.029 mg/kg (milligrams per kilogram) of emamectin B1 benzoate, one of the pesticides used to treat vegetables in order to reduce the presence of insects in the plantations. These levels would be three times higher than the limits set by European regulations, he claims. Unbelievable! For the record, two notifications concerning shipments from Morocco have been canceled by the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF).