Brussels, 03/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - Egypt is calling for the lifting of the ban on certain vegetable exports to the EU since the E.coli crisis in July 2011 (see OJEC L 179/10).
The Egyptian farm minister explains in Al-Ahram Online that the tests had shown that Egypt is not a source of infection, but the EU restrictions have not yet been lifted although they should not extend beyond October.
The chair of the Egyptian Export Council, Sherif El-Beltagy, told Al-Ahram that he hoped sales would pick up this week and cereals and sprouted grains (particularly fenugreek sprouts) could be sent to Europe, regretting that the EU had introduced precautionary measures that went beyond the measures in place in the EU itself.
El-Ahram reports that a statement was issued on 10 August 2011 by Bernadino Leon, EU Special Envoy for the Mediterranean, at a Cairo press conference, stating that the EU would be resuming imports and increasing orders once it was certain there were no dangers. He add that the EU felt that fenugreek sprouts imported from Egypt in 2009 and 2010 had been involved in the epidemic that affected 1,000 people in Europe and North America. (FB/transl.fl)