Speeches

Huw Irranca-Davies – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Huw Irranca-Davies on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether any alternatives to a full ban on the importation of Indian mangoes were (a) considered by his Department’s officials and (b) put forward to European Commissioners.

Dan Rogerson

The ban was imposed following persistent interceptions of plant pestson imports of Indian produce into the European Union (EU) and critical reports from the European Commission’s Food and Veterinary Office audits in 2010 and 2013. Despite assurances from India in response to these reports the level of interceptions remained high. The EU’s decision to introduce a ban was therefore fully justified and supported by all Member States including the UK, in line with our policy of strengthening plant health controls. Therefore, no alternatives to a ban were considered by Defra.

Protecting plant health is a key Defra objective. Plant pests and diseases such as those intercepted from India in recent years can cause serious damage to the UK glasshouse industry which is worth over £300 million per annum. However, I am aware of the importance of the mango trade and Defra officials are liaising with the Indian High Commission on what support the UK can offer to India to help it ensure compliance with EU import requirements.

The following table shows the number of consignments of mangoes imported into the UK in the last five years which were infested with Tephriditae (and therefore rejected) by country of origin. The European Commission is considering similar measures to those taken against India for other countries with high levels of interceptions of plant pests. Such consideration takes account of findings from all Member States, and covers all plant commodities and all pests identified.

Year

Country of origin

No. of consignments imported into the UK

No. of consignments infected with Tephritidae

2010

Dominican Republic

351

1

India

1977

1

Jamaica

228

3

Pakistan

3302

6

2011

Dominican Republic

417

2

India

1836

11

Jamaica

262

3

Pakistan

3690

19

Puerto Rico

1

1

Sri Lanka

144

1

Uganda

138

1

2012

Bangladesh

146

1

Brazil

445

1

Costa Rica

70

2

Dominican Republic

606

18

Ghana

628

15

India

3448

23

Jamaica

332

24

Kenya

2044

4

Pakistan

5128

81

Philippines

12

2

Sri Lanka

189

10

St Lucia

50

1

Thailand

1050

3

Uganda

104

2

2013

Brazil

316

3

Dominican Republic

756

16

Ghana

357

4

Guinea

7

1

India

3563

13

Jamaica

516

17

Kenya

1654

17

Pakistan

5910

47

Puerto Rico

104

1

Sri Lanka

111

3

U A E

1

1

Vietnam

77

1

2014 (to 18/06/14)

Brazil

106

1

Dominican Republic

420

3

Ghana

271

1

India

401

1

Jamaica

464

9

Kenya

698

7

Mexico

61

1

Senegal

4

1

Sri Lanka

69

3

Source: Fera and Europhyt