The Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC) scored a major victory on Wednesday securing the immediate lifting of unnecessary controls for bananas from the Dominican Republic and saving importers tens of thousands of pounds and lengthy delays.
After the European Commission’s review recently of the Annex I listing of products under EC Regulation 669/2009 and agreement to de-list bananas from the Dominican Republic from 1 October 2010, the FPC had called on the Food Standards Agency and the Commission to lift these controls with immediate effect.
“Banana importers would have been charged £30,000-40,000 for checks over the next few months even though their products were perfectly safe for consumers,” said Nigel Jenney, FPC ceo. “We are delighted that the authorities have taken heed of our arguments. These ridiculous controls on bananas from the Dominican Republic have cost five UK importers around £50,000 since January 2010. It would be great to see the FSA or the Commission reimburse these importers for the impact of their previously ill-thought out regulation and its application.”
The FPC is still lobbying for the urgent application of an assured trader scheme to allow port health authorities to reduce checks on reputable traders already meeting GlobalGAP and other high standards.
Also the FPC has raised concerns with the FSA and the European Commission regarding the inclusion from October 2010 of other products to the Annex I listing: Egyptian oranges, peaches, pomegranates, strawberries and green beans; curry leaves from India; and coriander leaves, basil and mint from Thailand.
The UK is a major importer of the Egyptian lines: accounting for 40 per cent of EU imports of oranges from Egypt in 2008, and the regulation will have a significant impact on several importers.
“We are extremely concerned about the impact of these additional checks on the capacity of both ports and port health authorities to cope with the required number of checks. It is likely that some will not have sufficient resource or storage facilities to cope with such high volumes coming from Egypt,” said Jenney. “This poorly thought out regulation fails to meet standards for effective, risk-based and proportionate regulation. Increased checks, delays in clearance, additional storage costs, damage and loss of products and their disposal are devastating many importers and suppliers of highly perishable products. The situation is likely to worsen in October unless the authorities urgently introduce the assured trader status and reduce checks on reputable traders.
“We accept the need for appropriate risk based regulation, but as this regulation stands it is a sledge hammer to crack a nut. The UK government states that it is committed to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy on trade but we have yet to see this come to fruition.”
