Judge: 'NAK decision about seed potato fraud justified'

The decision of the NAK inspection service to have the potato harvest of the fraudulent grower from Kruisland sold in a controlled manner this year is justified. This was stated by the Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal. In the case, Minister Carola Schouten (Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality) reported that the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) acted correctly by not having the seed potatoes cleared.

De loom has requested the judge to process the potato harvest of 2019 at his company and to have it inspected by the NAK inspection service. This is in contrast to the decision of the NAK. However, the judge in The Hague rejected the grower's request. The grower's seed potatoes will therefore have to be processed and certified elsewhere. The judge also considers that the suspension of the inspection for 3 years is not unreasonable.

From one Letter to Parliament From Minister Schouten, it appears that the NVWA's Intelligence and Investigation Service is currently investigating the fraud in Kruisland. Both the NAK and the Belgian Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (FAVV) are involved in this. The NVWA-IOD investigates the information and assesses whether there is a reason to start a criminal investigation, as was stated by Breeders Trust. applied for.

Fraudulent seed potatoes rightly not cleared
In the letter, the minister answers questions from MPs Jaco Geurts and Maurits von Martels (CDA). They asked, among other things, why the fraudulent seed potatoes were not cleared in the Netherlands, while they were in Belgium. The NVWA has only introduced phytosanitary measures on the 17,5 hectares. In concrete terms, this means that an additional field inspection and testing of harvested lots (for quarantine diseases) must be carried out there.

Schouten believes that the phytosanitary risk in the case has been estimated as low and has been sufficiently covered by the imposition of the phytosanitary inspection and sampling. She sees no reason to ensure better coordination between the countries. However, the NVWA and the FASFC will still discuss this.

Anne-Jan Doorn

Anne Jan Doorn is an arable expert at Boerenbusiness. He writes about the various arable farming markets and also focuses on the land and energy market.

aj.doorn@boerenbusiness. Nl

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