Q87 - 11-9-2002 at 01:51 PM
http://just-food.com/news_detail.asp?art=52291&app=1&c=1
Mexico said on Tuesday the European market has been reopened to imports of Mexican wheat after a five-year ban and buyers, including pasta makers,
have committed to import $10 million-worth of the next harvest.
Mexican agriculture authorities said the 1997 ban, originally imposed amid concerns of the karnal bunt fungus, was lifted following a June inspection
tour by Italian pasta producers to the Mexicali valley in Baja California state.
Included on the tour were pasta makers Barilla Divella and Grupo Colussi, Mexican officials said.
"The European market was reopened to the commercialisation of Mexican wheat after having been closed to it since 1997," the Mexican agriculture
ministry, SAGARPA, said in a statement.
SAGARPA also said that as a result of the lifting of the export ban authorities would reopen the port of Ensenada to the wheat shipments and that
eight new wheat storage silos would be built to house the cereal.
The Karnal Bunt wheat disease causes a foul odour and discoloring in contaminated wheat, but is not dangerous to humans or livestock.
Source : Reuters
[Edited on 11-9-2002 by Q87]