Support to the DRCQ of Cameroon: support to the planning and budgeting of the implementation of the mango file for the 2022 season

In West and Central Africa, the economic significance of the damage caused locally by fruit flies on the mango sector has increased in recent years. The mango export sector is also going through a period of phytosanitary crisis linked to the excessive number of interceptions of consignments in Europe due to the presence of non-European fruit flies. The legislation in force in Europe establishes a regulatory framework to protect crops from harmful organisms and to prevent their spread in the European territory. No stung fruit can be imported into Europe, under penalty of rejection and total destruction of the batch of mangoes by the European phytosanitary services at the exporter’s expense.

During the previous mango campaigns, the interceptions of lots from West and Central African countries have been important. To this end, the European authorities (Directorate General for Health and Food Safety) have put in place new rules that all countries exporting mangoes to the EU must respect.

The NPPO of Cameroon has sent the EU its dossier detailing the systemic approach that is applied to ensure that mango shipments are free of fruit flies. This dossier has been approved and implemented for the 2021 season. Unfortunately, flaws in the system or the application of the measures led to the detection of pests arriving in Europe. An internal audit was carried out by DRCQ agents on the operationalisation of the mango dossier in October 2021 with the support of COLEACP and 2 of the major observations resulting from this internal audit are the following: absence of an official control schedule (field visits); absence of a risk categorisation sheet for each exporter.