Pesticides in organic imports

An EU statistic shows: Pesticides are particularly often reported in organic imports from China, India and Turkey.

When it comes to organic imports into the EU, goods from China, Turkey and India are particularly noticeable for pesticide residues and other irregularities. This was reported by the German online magazine taz, which referred to "unofficial statistics" from the Commission present to the newspaper.

Bananas, avocados or apples frequently affected

Thus, these statistics show 390 anomalies of imports from third countries which were reported by the Member States last year. China accounted for 17% of these anomalies, Turkey and India for 10% each. In nine out of ten cases, noticeable pesticide residues were reported. Bananas, avocados and apples are the most frequently affected, the taz reported. This was followed by herbs, spices and oil fruits as well as super foods such as goji berries.

According to taz, even according to the suspicious amount, China was ahead with around 9600 tons in 2018. "Turkey was in the second place with 6100 tons, Moldova with 5300 tons in third place. Ukraine, from which particularly many animal feeds come, was in 4th place with 4500 tons", wrote the taz. It also noted that over 40% of the cases had been reported by German companies or inspection bodies. Nine EU states did not report any abnormalities.

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