CityNews – Thailand is considering halting vegetable exports to the EU region until March 2014 after several vegetables were found to contain insects, and the EU issued a warning period to Thailand.
The warning stated that the importing of Thailand’s products would be banned if more insects were discovered in future. The vegetables found to be carrying insects included basil, chilli, capsicum peppers, aubergine, bitter gourd, and parsley, which are all popular ingredients for tradition Thai cooking.
Apparently the EU has found insects in Thai vegetables landing on their shores up to five times this year alone. There is now a high chance that the EU will ban the import of fresh vegetables if they continue to find insects, such as flies and worms, in the produce they receive from Thailand. They have given Thailand a warning period of 12 months commencing from August 1st, 2013, and if they encounter more than five incidents breaking their regulations again, Thai vegetable imports will be banned.
The Thai Trade Office in London revealed the results of their survey of Thai vegetables in the EU, with Thai vegetables seeing a 40-50% price rise since the EU implemented stricter regulations on chemical residue and insects in fresh produce coming from Thailand.
Importers seem to walking away from Thailand, and heading over to countries such as Laos, Malaysia, Vietnam, Spain and Cyprus, in order to find similar products in high demand in the EU, such as herbs and chillies.