France has again banned the importation and marketing of fresh cherries from countries where the use of dimethoate, a contested insecticide, is allowed to treat cherries, according to a decree published Saturday in the Official Journal. Cherries from organic farming in accordance with European standards are allowed.
Toxic effects
This measure, applicable for one year, is adopted every year since the ban in February 2016 in the hexagon of this pesticide, having toxic effects. Its banishment had angered farmers who considered it the only effective bulwark against the Asian midge (Drosophila suzukii), an aggressive pest of cherry groves.
France is once again playing its national safeguard clause in the absence of global dimethoate ban measures in the European Union, a measure requested by the French government in 2016. Paris is acting both to protect French consumers and to avoid distortions of competition, some cherry producing countries still using the decried insecticide, such as Austria, Croatia, Turkey, Argentina or Chile.