asked the Minister for Agriculture if he is aware that the practice of falsifying country of origin notices of fruit in shop premises is taking place; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Fruit Imports.
2.
Under the legal quality standards operating in this country, imported fruit is required to have an indication of the country of origin on the packaging. In retail shops the produce may be removed from the packaging for display, in which case a label must be attached to the place of display indicating the origin. In the course of inspections it is sometimes found that retailers omit to carry out the required labelling, but it is unusual to find a case of incorrect labelling. Where produce is not correctly labelled, the matter is brought to the attention of the management. This is generally sufficient to have the matter corrected but, in the case of persistent offenders, legal proceedings are instituted.
Is there an inspectorate available and do inspectors visit various retail outlets to ensure that these regulations are complied with?
They do. Recently there were allegations that Spanish and Uruguayan labelled fruit were in reality fruit of South African origin under wrong labels. We had those allegations investigated and they were proved wrong. We watch such matters very closely.
How many inspectors are employed by the Department in dealing with the subject matter of Question No. 2?
I do not have that information, but I can get it for the Deputy.
The Minister mentioned legal proceedings being taken on occasions. Would he be able to tell us how many such proceedings were instituted in the past two years? Also, how many were successful?
In the past three years there have been five prosecutions for breaches of the quality standard regulations, which include labelling.
How many of those specifically related to the subject matter of Question No. 2, labelling?
I have not that exact information, but there was a total of five prosecutions in all.