The Spanish government and local trade bodies have hit back at Germany’s public health ministry after it was found that Spanish cucumbers have not been responsible for a deadly E.coli outbreak across Europe.
Until yesterday (31 May), it was suspected that Spanish cucumbers were the source of the outbreak. However, despite initial claims in Germany of a link to cucumbers from Spain, the European Commission said the products were not carrying the STEC serotype O104, which has been identified as the cause of the outbreak.
Spain’s deputy prime minister Aldredo Perez Rubalcaba has not ruled out the possibility of taking action against the Hamburg Board of Heath and Consumer Protection.
According to Reuters, in an interview on Spanish radio station Cadena Ser, he said: “We do not rule out taking action against authorities which have cast doubt on the quality of our produce, so action may be taken against the authorities, in this case, of Hamburg.”
Spain’s agriculture industry has been hit hard by the allegations, with Reuters reporting that farmers are suggesting the accusations are costing them around EUR200m a week in lost sales.
The Union of Small Farmers and Ranchers (UPA) in Spain has called for the resignation of Hamburg’s health minister, Cornelia Prüfer-Storcks, for “acting irresponsibly” and for “ignoring all protocols of action in food crisis situations” .
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By GlobalDataPrüfer-Storcks defended her actions in a statement released late yesterday, saying that it would have been “irresponsible to hold back” and that the “protection of human life must be more important than economic interests”.
With the European Commission confirming that the cucumbers did test positive for a different strain of E.coli, Prüfer-Storcks said that even if the test-positive EHEC cucumbers are not the source of the current epidemic, they are “nevertheless a heath hazard and the pathogens can cause EHEC disease”.
The UPA has also called for the European and German Authorities to take steps to repair the “incalculable economic damage”. UPA general secretary has called for the normalisation of the market as soon as possible, with countries removing blocks as well as identify responsibilities for the German authorities to “pay for what they have done” to the Spanish horticultural sector, which has been “the victim of a hasty accusation”.
The Spanish Federation of Associations of Producers and Exporters of Fruits, Vegetables, Flowers and Live Plants (FEPEX) said today that it is seeking “urgent crisis management” to allow disposal of all the fruit and vegetables accumulated.
It is also calling for farmers to be compensated at market prices through a special scheme of distribution to charities.
FEPEX said that, aside from the economic losses, it believes that the damaged image of the sector is “even more injurious”. It is seeking both EU and national authorities to take “appropriate measures to recover normalcy to the markets and confidence in Spanish production”.
According to the Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s national disease centre, 13 people in Germany have died. One person in Sweden has also died, although the Institute declined to confirm reports of 16 fatalities.