The delegation of the National Garlic Sector of Asaja, chaired by Miguel del Pino, and the National Garlic Table, of which Del Pino is vice-president, has succeeded in having the European Commission's Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development open investigations on the fraudulent entry of Chinese garlic into the European Union (EU) and on the import of Egyptian garlic without tariffs.
The representatives of the Spanish garlic sector had other demands, which they share with the French, Italian, and Portuguese garlic sectors, such as the need to convince the large areas to pay better prices to producers for their garlic, and applying a moratorium on the ban of certain pesticides that the sector had been using, until other alternative products reach the market. Miguel del Pino said that the MEPs they met with, in particular Clara Aguilera (PSOE), Juan Ignacio Zoido (PP), and Mazaly Aguilar (Vox), endorsed their petitions and had committed to transfer them to the European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development so that they give them an answer.
According to Del Pino, a large national chain of supermarkets has already increased the prices that they pay to producers, that is, the farmers are achieving a positive response to their main demands. Del Pino also expressed his concern that Egyptian garlic is entering the EU without paying tariffs, making it a tough competitor for Spanish garlic. Their production is already higher than that of Spain, and their production costs, including the expense of transporting the product to Europe, are infinitely lower than ours, he added.
The Spanish garlic delegation hopes that, once the MEPs take the matter to the European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture, the EU reviews its agreement with Egypt, as it makes no sense that they enter more and more garlic into the EU without paying any tariffs. In the meantime, the European Commission has already opened an investigation into this, and also into the 'fraudulent' entry of Chinese garlic into the EU.
The president of Asaja's National Garlic Sector also said that fresh garlic from China was being entered into the EU as if it were frozen garlic, which constitutes a tremendous fiscal fraud because the import of Chinese fresh garlic is subject to a quota and, once it's surpassed, must pay a dissuasive 1.2 euro per kilo tariff; meanwhile, frozen Chinese garlic has no quota, nor tariff.
Source: lainformacion.com
