Banned pesticides found in citrus fruit from Turkey despite increased inspections

Question for written answer  E-001414/2022
to the Commission
Rule 138
Inma Rodríguez-Piñero (S&D)

The Commission’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) shows that, between January and March 2022, the EU rejected up to 298 consignments of fruit and vegetables owing to residues of banned pesticides. Of these, 60% came from Turkey.

In absolute numbers, Turkey accounted for 180 out of a total of 298 alerts for fruit and vegetables for all countries outside the EU. The product in which unauthorised pesticide use was found most often is citrus fruit, with 108 consignments intercepted, i.e. 35% of the total.

On 3 November 2021, the Official Journal of the European Union published an amendment to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1793, increasing the frequency of inspections of imports of lemons, oranges, mandarins and clementines from Turkey to 20%.

Given that this increase in inspections has not deterred the shipment of citrus fruit with banned pesticides:

• 1.Does the Commission intend to continue increasing the inspection rate for consignments of citrus fruit from Turkey to 50%?
• 2.Does the Commission intend to stop imports temporarily if banned substances continue to be detected at these levels in citrus fruits?