Oxamyl has been used particularly in commercial gardening and for soil and plant foliar treatment, and was recently discovered when it entered Portuguese soil. This pesticide was present there at a percentage greater than that permitted, i.e. 0.01 mg/kg, on cucumbers freshly landed from Morocco, notes an article published by the online edition of African youth.
This product may, “depending on the dose taken and frequency of exposure to the chemical, cause headache, dizziness, chest discomfort, confusion, blurred vision, sweating, nausea, convulsions, mydriasis, slow pulse, blindness, and even death” , describes the Parisian media.
The pesticide residues detected in this shipment greatly exceed the rate accepted by European legislation, the Maximum Residue Limit (MRL). Therefore, the Portuguese authorities undertook to destroy this stock that was on its way to entering its territory, to prevent these vegetables from reaching the markets of other European Union countries.
“Studies conducted by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) raised the alarm about the use of the pest-effective substance oxamyl in the cultivation of cucumbers, as well as bananas, potatoes, melons, carrots, melons, tomatoes, squash, zucchini or eggplant, and the European Commission has just taken action to ban it,” he explains. African youth.
Thus, the misfortune of this latest shipment of cucumbers portends further difficulties for Morocco’s agricultural export sector. Morocco already exports large quantities of fruits and vegetables abroad, despite numerous calls to stop these exports, so that this production is limited to Moroccans whose purchasing power has deteriorated, due to the sharp rise in prices, especially foodstuffs, due to the sharp rise in prices. Inflation due to the current context of the crisis.
For the cucumber sector grown in greenhouses alone, exports from Morocco have more than tripled over the past five years, reaching 20,000 tons in 2022, details African youth: about two-thirds went to different countries of the European Union, one-third went to the Iberian Peninsula.
Young AfrTherefore, ique asks in these conditions: “Should the Kingdom keep production to itself – in the face of the risks of health consequences – or resign itself to bringing the acceptable level of pesticides into line with that of European Union countries?”
