The Board asks Andalucians for collaboration to avoid harmful pests

The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Sustainable Development has launched an awareness campaign on the risks of vegetables that come to the autonomous community from other areas of the world can pose to Andalucian agriculture.

Under the motto ‘Plant pandemics exist and you can avoid them. If you travel, do not bring plants’, this initiative seeks the collaboration of the population to prevent plant material from reaching Andalucia that could spread quarantine pests.

This initiative, which appeals to the individual responsibility of citizens, is especially aimed at people who travel outside of Spain on the occasion of summer holidays and emphasises that plants or fruits that are acquired in other countries can be carriers of pests such as, for example, Xylella Fastidiosa or HLB of citrus fruits, whose arrival in Andalucia could cause serious damage to agricultural holdings.

In order to achieve the maximum possible awareness, the campaign will last until September and will be developed through social networks and the Phytosanitary Alert and Information Network (RAIF) of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Informational messages will be sent on Twitter about the dangers of importing plant material that does not comply with the established standards and will be accompanied by the hashtag #notraigasplantas to draw the attention of Andalucians to avoid the possible entry of diseased plant material.

The RAIF messages on social networks will be complemented with personalised notices through SMS and weekly phytosanitary newsletters addressed to its subscribers which will focus on this important issue.

The Junta de Andalucia highlights the need to comply with current regulations regarding the entry and circulation of vegetables from third countries in the European Union. Citrus fruits, plant species of the prunus family (almond, cherry or plum, among others), vine and potatoes are prohibited from being introduced into the European Union if they do not have the mandatory phytosanitary passport consisting of a label and a document of accompaniment.

This makes it possible to guarantee that the products come from entities registered in the Official Registry of Producers, Traders and Importers of Vegetables (Ropciv) and that they have been subjected to controls or phytosanitary treatments.

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