The Government and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food and Environment are doing "everything they can so that Canary potatoes can be exported again to the territory of the European Union (EU)," including peninsular Spain.
Minister Isabel García Tejerina assured this in the plenary session of Congress in response to the deputy, Ana Oramas, of Coalición Canaria (CC), who asked if the Ministry was planning to authorise the shipment of Canary potatoes to the Peninsula.
García Tejerina explained that the EU legislation establishes a special phytosanitary protection regime for the Canary Islands, which in practice gives the archipelago "a status of third country" for the European Union in this matter.
"In this situation, the Government does not have the power to decide the conditions under which Canary agricultural products can be introduced in the rest of Spain," she added.
She acknowledged the validity of the protocol for the elimination of the Guatemalan moth that has been developed by the Canary Islands Institute of Agricultural Research (ICIA), highlighting that it has been a reference for Royal Decree 197/2017, which establishes the national pest eradication program in Galicia and Asturias.
This legislation, published on 4 March, is not applicable to the Canary Islands, where the pest, detected in 1999, "has spread widely and eradication is not possible," according to the text.
Tejerina has pointed out that "the current situation makes it possible to establish stricter conditions for agricultural entry to the Canary Islands, which gives the agricultural sector of the islands a greater protection against the entrance of pests and diseases."
"However, the conditions for access to the EU are set at European level and not at national level."
The Minister stressed that the Ministry sent the Canary Protocol for the elimination of the Guatemalan moth from Canary potatoes to the European Commission for approval in Brussels, so that the export to other EU territories could be resumed.
According to the Minister, the special phytosanitary status of the Canary Islands is a condition that Spain has defended in the negotiations on the new EU phytosanitary regulation that will come into force in December 2019, which will give the islands "greater protection against the entrance of new pests and diseases."
Oromas, who has asked Tejerina to co-fund the research on this pest by the National Institute of Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA), was said to be optimistic about the protocol possibly being definitively authorised by the EU in June.
Source: EFE
