2023-10-03 01:06:33
The conservation organization WWF has started an information campaign, on the occasion of the celebration this week in Madrid of the international fruit and vegetable fair, Fruit Attraction, aimed at supermarkets, the food industry and European marketers about “the risk of marketing strawberries and red fruits of illegal origin ” and the “importance of ensuring” that their suppliers “comply with legality in the use of water and land.”
The situation is dramatic in Doñana
As indicated by the organization in a press release, WWF has stressed that the situation is “dramatic” in Doñana, “with a severe drought aggravated by the theft of water in part of the territory that is overexploiting the aquifers and ending the biodiversity of the main European wetland”.
A severe drought aggravated by the theft of water in part of the territory that is overexploiting the aquifers and ending the biodiversity of the main European wetland
In this way, WWF will be present this week in the fifteenth edition of Fruit Attraction, one of the “most important” professional events in the European and global fruit and vegetable sector. It will do so by participating in various events, conferences and meetings with representatives of the distribution sector to put “the emphasis on the crucial role of supermarkets in guaranteeing the legal use of water and soil in the production of berries in Doñana, as demanded by European consumers”.
“Prevent” “illegal strawberries from reaching European markets”
Thus, faced with the imminent start of the strawberry campaign, WWF wants to “prevent” “illegal strawberries from reaching European markets,” which is why it asks supermarkets to ” ensure that they only offer their consumers strawberries and berries from legal farms on their shelves and in no case of the properties that could be amnestied if the Anti-Doñana Law is approved”, proposed by the government of the Junta de Andalucía.
It asks supermarkets to “ensure that they only offer their consumers strawberries and red fruits on their shelves from legal farms and in no case from farms that could be amnestied if the Anti-Doñana Law is approved” proposed by the government of the Junta of Andalusia
WWF will present at this international event the “main standards and internal control audits available”
With this objective, WWF will present at this international event the “main standards and internal control audits available” for supermarkets in order to “ensure that their berry suppliers comply with water and soil legality and do not harm Doñana.” To do this, they “must follow” the basis set by the organization in its WWF guide to ensure the legal use of water in agriculture.
Audit legal water use
“It is a practical tool that allows them to face the task of auditing the legal use of water, fight against unfair competition and prioritize legal farmers who use water correctly“, they have pointed out from the entity.
In addition, WWF will launch other types of activities aimed at European supermarkets and certifiers during the berry campaign to “prevent illegal strawberries and berries from reaching their shelves and being confused with legal fruits.”
“Prevent illegal strawberries and red fruits from reaching your shelves and being confused with legal fruits.”
European consumers “do not want to consume illegal strawberries that destroy Doñana, the wetland where birds from across the continent rest”
Among them, a seminar aimed at supermarkets and specialized in this objective will be organized soon, as well as various training sessions for certifiers and legal auditors.
WWF has highlighted that European consumers “do not want to consume illegal strawberries that destroy Doñana, the wetland where birds from across the continent rest”, therefore, they have considered that the role of supermarkets and the food industry is “fundamental to save Doñana and promote legal and more sustainable agriculture”, since they have highlighted that the reputational risk for the sector, “if these strawberries from illegal farms are mixed with legal ones, is very high.”
Likewise, WWF has explained that in 2022 more than twenty supermarkets and leading companies in the European fruit sectorincluding retailers and fruit marketers and processors that sell strawberries from Huelva and Doñana They sent a letter to the president of the Junta de Andalucía and leader of the Popular Party of Andalusia, Juanma Moreno, requesting “the withdrawal of their plan to legalize up to 1,900 hectares of illegal strawberry irrigation”.
The bill continues
“More than a year later, and with a historic drought and the national park in a critical situation, far from meeting this request from the European markets, the bill continues forward. An environmental nonsense that will affect not only the future of a wetland of international importance, but to the credibility and reputation of the group of farmers in Huelva who are legal and responsible,” commented the general secretary of WWF Spain, Juan Carlos del Olmo.
Furthermore, Del Olmo added that Doñana “has reached the limit and it cannot be tolerated that companies that produce illegal strawberries and red fruits and that are responsible for drying up aquifers continue to sell themselves in Europe.”
“The amnesty that is intended to be approved will not only reward those who have broken the law and have profited from it, but it will allow their strawberries to mix and compete unfairly with the companies and producers who strive to comply with the law, and It is something that we are not going to allow,” he added.
Furthermore, the secretary general recalled that the organization is a signature collection campaign in which “more than 130,000 people have already participated” who have demonstrated “their opposition to the Anti-Doñana Law“, which “would represent one of the greatest ecological attacks perpetrated by an administration in the history of Doñana.”
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