The number of interceptions of harmful organisms in plants and plant products imported into the EU increased by 4.4% in 2015, according to the European Commission’s annual Europhyt report that was published on 20 December 2016.
In all, 7,180 interceptions (6,762 of third country origin) resulting from non-compliance with EU requirements were made through the Europhyt rapid alert system by the member states and Switzerland. A total of 2,136 notifications were due to the presence of harmful organisms, compared with 2,408 in 2014, a fall of 11%. However, there were 2,607 notifications due to non-compliance of wood packaging material with international phytosanitary requirements, an increase of 30.4% on 2014, and 1,805 notifications resulting from documentary problems (lacking or inappropriate phytosanitary certificate), up by 1% from the previous year.
Seven third countries particularly involved. Seven third countries were responsible for the majority of interceptions of harmful organisms in 2015 (each having over 90 cases): Ghana, Uganda, Laos, Bangladesh, Kenya, Uruguay and Thailand. The most commonly intercepted products were fruits and vegetables (72.3%), wood packaging materials (13.2%), cut flowers (5.1%) and planting material (2.4%). Seven commodities accounted for 68.9% of the fruit and vegetable interceptions: peppers, lemons, mangos, aubergines, basil, bitter gourds and serpent gourds. A sharp rise was recorded in interceptions of Citrus black spot from Uruguay, but all the other commodities exhibited a downward trend in 2015, in particular, mango, attributable to emergency measures taken against India in 2014. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)