EU olive oil import checks rare or ‘non-existent’: watchdog

AFP | Brussels

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Olive oil imported into the EU is rarely, if ever, checked for potentially harmful substances, auditors said Wednesday, reinforcing European farmers’ concerns as Brussels pushes for new trade deals.

An olive oil superpower, the European Union has “robust” rules to ensure the stuff drizzled on salads, pasta and other foods is of good quality -- but they are not always fully applied, according to an EU watchdog.

A new report by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) found import controls for pesticides and other contaminants were “either non-existent or sporadic” in the countries it analysed.

“Improving checks, traceability, and legal clarity is essential to protect not only consumers but also the reputation of European olive oil,” said Joelle Elvinger, the member in charge of the audit. Inadequate controls on agricultural imports are a recurring grievance of European farmers opposing new trade deals like the pact Brussels is to sign with South American bloc Mercosur Saturday.

Farmers complain that such accords expose them to unfair competition from less-regulated overseas competitors who use pesticides and other substances banned in the EU.

“This further confirms the preoccupation of the EU farming in terms of lack of sufficient controls to guarantee reciprocity in standard,” pan-European agriculture lobby group Copa-Cogeca told AFP, commenting on the report’s findings.

The 27-nation EU is the world’s top producer, exporter, and consumer of olive oil.

As such, it imports the equivalent of just around nine percent of its annual production of the Mediterranean diet staple.

Tunisia is by far the largest exporter to the bloc, followed by Turkey, Mercosur member Argentina and Morocco.

Focusing on leading oil producers Greece, Spain and Italy as well as Belgium -- home to the large port of Antwerp, a key import hub -- the ECA report found that none did a good job of checking imports.

For example, no olive oil consignments were checked at Italy’s main entry points in 2023 and 2024, and Spain analysed only three samples for pesticide residues between 2018 and 2023. Pesticide checks on oil made in the EU were instead “well established”, but controls for other contaminants were “inconsistent”, the report said.

The European Commission has promised to step up checks on agricultural imports and to block imports of food treated with several EU-banned pesticides, as it sought to allay farmers’ concerns over the Mercosur deal.