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After the European Parliament voted in favor of the Morocco-EU Association agreement in a plenary session held earlier in January, Spanish fruit and vegetable producer organizations declared that products originating from Western Sahara must be labeled.
The idea was first made public by the Coordinadora de Organizaciones de Agricultores y Ganaderos (the Farmer and Agriculture Organization Coordinator, COAG), which issued a statement indicating that MEPs' vote on January the 16th at the European Parliament is «unfavorable for fruit and vegetable producers in Spain».
«Negotiations linked to the agreement were carried in a suspicious way, marked by the pressure put by Morocco and a serious conflict of interest of some members of the committee of international trade. All of this was conducted without providing an impact assessment on the products originating form Western Sahara, because Morocco did not provide reliable statistics about that», said Andrés Congora from COAG.
Labeling products originating from Western Sahara
The trade union is convinced that the «EU-Morocco trade agreement violates European laws related to selling fruits and vegetables by preventing consumers from knowing whether these products are coming from Morocco of Western Sahara», argued COAG in a statement.
The same source added that Europe laws «stipulate that fruits and vegetables must be labeled with the country of origin». Based on that, the trade union urged the European Union to «strengthen border controls to prevent agricultural products originating from Western Sahara from entering the market as if they are from Morocco».
The Spanish Federation of Associations of Producers and Exporters of Fruits, Vegetables (FEPEX) has voiced its «concern» about the consequences of tomatoes arriving from the Sahara into the European market. The organization has also urged the continental body to label products coming from Morocco’s southern provinces.
