Spanish farmers protest unfair competition from Turkish produce entering EU via Bulgarian border checkpoints.
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The Kapitan Andreevo border crossing in Bulgaria serves as a major entry point for products from Turkey and the Middle East into the European Union. Spanish agricultural groups claim that fruits and vegetables pass through this checkpoint with minimal phytosanitary control, allowing Turkish produce treated with banned or excessive pesticides to compete unfairly against local harvests. These groups allege that the high volume of health alerts reported by Bulgaria is not due to diligence but because so much contaminated food passes through, making detected issues only a fraction of the problem. While the European Commission expresses concern and urges Turkey to meet EU standards, Bulgarian authorities attribute the high alert rate to the intensive flow of products. Data shows that horticultural products from Turkey generate the most high-risk alerts in the EU. Furthermore, Spanish agriculture points to past corruption at the border, where local mafia allegedly controlled inspections for years through bribery, leading to fraudulent controls and massive illicit payments. Although state control resumed in 2022, Spanish producers argue that sampling rates remain too low, posing health risks and creating unfair competition due to a lack of “mirror clauses” requiring non-EU products to meet the same standards as local ones. The text also mentions past investigations into corruption involving large sums of money at the border crossing.
