France suspends the entry of fruits and vegetables treated with an insecticide banned in Europe

France has decided to prevent the importation of fresh fruits and vegetables treated with the insecticide thiacloprid, banned in the EU, the Ministry of Agriculture announced on Friday, in accordance with one of the commitments made by the executive to calm the anger of farmers. “As the European Union has not yet” taken measures to limit the entry of such products into European territory, “the government has decided, pending and in order to protect the consumer, to suspend by ministerial decree of February 23 the introduction, import and placing on the national market of fresh fruits and vegetables from third countries treated with thiacloprid,” indicates the ministry in a press release. The text does not appear in the Official Journal of the day.

The active substance from the neonicotinoid family, “banned from use in France since September 2018 and in the European Union since February 2021, (...) continues to be used in other parts of the world to protect crops against certain insects,” underlines the ministry. “By purchasing and consuming fresh fruit and vegetables from these countries that have been treated with thiacloprid, the consumer is exposed to this substance, considered by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to be a category 2 carcinogen, toxic for reproduction category 1B, and endocrine disruptor,” continues the administration.

Among the sixty measures intended to defuse the anger of farmers, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal committed on February 1 to preventing this type of imports. And he announced on February 21 that an order would be issued on Friday. “We will fight product by product for respect for a simple principle: if it is prohibited for our farmers, it must not enter our country. (...) This puts our farmers at a disadvantage. This does not protect the French any more since the products treated with thiacloprid arrive on the shelves,” declared the head of government.

The order “enjoins operators to ensure that imported fresh fruits and vegetables do not contain thiacloprid residues: throughout the chain of import, processing and marketing of these products, French operators are therefore required to implement means to control the risk of introducing products containing quantifiable residues of thiacloprid,” according to the ministry. The text, “taken for a period of one year, will cease to apply” as soon as the European Commission accedes to the French request to lower the “maximum residue limits” (MRLs) of thiacloprid that can be detected in foodstuffs. entering European territory.