The EU General Court, in a judgment delivered on Friday 12 July (Case T-94/15), has confirmed the ban on the use of hormones to raise panga, a fish produced in Vietnam and sold as an organic product.
Binca Seafoods, a German company importing pangasius produced in Vietnam, had asked the Commission to amend Regulation 1358/2014 on the origin of animals used in organic aquaculture in order to extend the option of introducing non-organically raised juveniles to farms until 2021. The company wanted to be able to use fry whose growth required for reproduction was caused by hormones. However, hormones have been banned since 2015.
The Commission refused to extend the transitional period, and Binca Seafoods brought an action before the General Court seeking annulment of the Regulation.
The General Court points out that organic aquaculture is based on the rearing of juveniles from organic broodstock and organic farms, but that, where juveniles from organic broodstock or farms are not available, animals from non-organic production may be introduced to a farm under special conditions. In addition, it states that the EU legislator determined that “the artificial initiation of the reproductive process in aquaculture animals using hormones and hormone derivatives [was] incompatible with the concept of organic production and that these substances [should] therefore not be used in organic aquaculture”.
To the General Court, it follows from the Regulation in question that, while the introduction of wild juveniles is still authorised, the introduction of juveniles from non-organic aquaculture is not, and that, in any event, “the use of hormones is definitively prohibited”. The General Court concludes that artificial initiation of the animals’ reproductive process is incompatible with the principles of organic aquaculture, and that Binca Seafoods' claims, which are based on unequal treatment between it and its competitors, are unfounded. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)