The Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (SCoPAFF) failed to obtain the qualified majority to approve the European Commission’s draft text that sought to apply to rice imported from third countries an increase from 0.01 to 0.09 mg/kg of the Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) for Tricyclazole, despite being a phytosanitary substance banned for use by EU rice farmers.

The Valencian Association of Farmers (AVA-ASAJA) has expressed its satisfaction because the result of the vote meets its advanced demand in February and, in particular, applauds the vote against the Spanish Government during the meeting of the SCoPAFF, as well as the signs of support transmitted to the organization by MEPs of various political groups.

“The community proposal was incoherent, repulsive, exhibited a total lack of European solidarity and moved us even further away from reciprocity or the mirror clauses that our politicians must prevail. Either we all compete in the market with the same rules or Brussels will continue to expel us from our fields and farms,” emphasizes the president of AVA-ASAJA Cristóbal Aguado.

“The pressure will be maintained and we will continue to be vigilant becaue we have only won the first round.” This from the Copa-Cogeca rice working group, whose vice president is the representative of AVA-ASAJA Miguel Minguet. They report that the European Commission now plans to go to the resources committee, a body where it will also need to reach a qualified majority to carry out the initiative. If Brussels lost the vote again, it could still approve the draft, but the processing would be left by the European Parliament and the Council, institutions that would have to approve or reject the text.

Therefore, Aguado assures that “AVA-ASAJA will keep the pressure and remain vigilant because we have only won the first round. The rice sector has sent a strong signal to the Commission and has delayed the process. But Brussels does not seem to give its arm to twist and we will continue to need the support of our representatives in Parliament and the Council to stop this nonsense. We are playing with the economic viability of European rice farmers, with the preservation of natural parks as emblematic as La Albufera or the Marjal Pego-Oliva whose ecosystem depends largely on cultivation, and with the food security of a basic product of our food such as rice.”

Tricyclazole is a phytosanitary substance that, after several exceptional authorizations, is currently prohibited from use in European agriculture. In the rice sector, it was essential for the control of the main disease of the crop, pyricularia oryzae. Not surprisingly, since their prohibition, Valencian rice farmers only have two authorized substances, which has generated significant resistance and caused losses of 50% of production in the Bomba variety.

Source: Agroinformacion.com