- EDITIONS: Spanish News Today Murcia Today Alicante Today
Date Published: 10/06/2021
ARCHIVED - 26 Almeria companies investigated for re-labelling Moroccan imports as being of Spanish origin
10 companies have so far been fined after a number of Almeria food producers were accused of relabelling cheap Moroccan products as Spanish.
A total of 26 companies in Almeria have been investigated accused of defrauding consumers by selling Moroccan-imported fruit and vegetables as Spanish-grown since 2019.
Officials have so far fined 10 companies found guilty of the practice which sees Spanish companies take advantage of the cheaper labour in Morocco to import low-cost produce into Spain before marketing it as Spanish-grown and selling it for higher prices, duping the consumer and taking jobs from the local economy.
Morocco is only allowed to export a certain amount of produce to Spain each year, meaning that companies which relabel Moroccan foods as Spanish are likely to also be flouting the regulations relating to the quotas for Moroccan produce permitted to be sold in Spain.
Officials have regularly inspected products coming in from non-EU countries, including Morocco, since 2019 following allegations in 2017 and 2018 of various Almeria-based companies selling cheaper North African produce as Spanish.
A total of 226 inspections were carried out in 2019 and another 267 in 2020, while so far this year 179 more have been carried out.
These checks resulted in the 26 investigations being carried out, including two in 2019, 11 in 2020 and 13 in 2021, and 10 fines have been enforced.
Currently, around 869,810 tons of vegetables are exported from Morocco to the European Union, and Almeria is one of Spain’s biggest producers of vegetables with many then making their way to the rest of Europe to be sold in different countries.
The principal advantage for Moroccan producers is cheap labour and the lack of obligation to comply with EU labour and sanitary laws relating to the production of food for human consumption; this, the Almerian agricultural sector says, makes it impossible to compete on an even playing field.
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