France prohibits the import of cherries from nine countries, because controversial pesticides are used.
The French government published a list of nine countries that cannot export cherries to France anymore, stated Agra-Europe. On the list are Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Luxembourg, Romania, the Czech Republic, Canada, the USA and Turkey. Reason for this decision: France has banned the use of dimethoate and prohibits the cherry import from countries that still used this insecticide.
In the meantime a pessimistic forecast for the French cherry harvest was issued. The French Agricultural Ministry in Paris adjusted the prediction of May downwards by 11% to 37,300 metric tons. The lower yield is due to the wet weather over the last weeks.
This year the Swiss cherry producers voluntarily stopped using pesticides with dimethoate. This chemical has been increasingly criticized in recent years. In 2013 pesticides with dimethoate were prohibited because of health reasons. Fruit growers are still allowed to use such chemicals, but only with a special permit and under stringent rules which are newly decided by the Federal Office of Agriculture each year.