Local Fiona
Bruce MP and Congleton business, Morfruit, save 2016 Christmas puddings for the
nation!
After
local businessman Simon Brown, MD of Morfruit, went to see Fiona Bruce MP at
one of her regular local surgeries, the MP realised how serious his concerns
were. Unless urgent and high level action was taken at the top of Government to
change an EU regulation, many jobs would be lost at the long established
Congleton business and possibly it could close altogether.
The
EU regulation banned grapes sprayed with a particular pesticide – chlorpyrifos
- which, whilst not harmful, was to be banned from grapes used in food
production after August 2016. However, inadvertently the wording of the EU
regulation meant that it included raisins harvested in 2015 or earlier. Raisins
are produced from grapes and can be kept for two years after harvesting and are
a staple ingredient in Christmas Puddings, mince pies, breakfast cereals and a
host of other products made by Morfruit – and another local manufacturer,
Mornflake. The raisins to be used in this year’s Christmas Puddings etc would
all have been treated with the banned pesticide, having been harvested in 2015
– these raisins having come mainly from Turkey – and no other raisins would be
available if they were not allowed to be used.
Fiona Bruce said “This
regulation meant that over 90% of all Christmas Puddings would not be available
for sale in the UK for Christmas 2016 plus a host of other products. With the
risk to many jobs at Morfruit I realised this regulation has to be changed –
and urgently.”
Fiona
Bruce spoke with the then Farming Minister George Eustace and arranged a
meeting with him in Westminster with Simon Brown of Morfruit and a
representative from Mornflake. The importance and urgency of the situation was
clearly explained and the potential impact on millions of food items in the run
up to Christmas 2016.
As
a result DEFRA have now released a formal statement allowing the use of the
sultanas and raisins from Turkey that may otherwise have been wasted. The UK Government have created a
solution which allows production of goods with dried fruit from Turkey for the
rest of the season, whereas the EU countries were unable to agree on a solution
for allowable levels of chlorpyrifos in dried fruit to tackle their own
regulatory oversight.
Simon Brown, Managing
Director of Morfruit said
“Our company was under extreme pressure
from pending EU food legislation, perhaps as much as closure. Fiona’s help in
creating a channel to DEFRA enabled us to discuss a sensible transitional
solution which allowed my company to continue to supply our customers. Without
this intervention, I doubt we would have survived and there would have been an
enormous gap in supermarkets of many Christmas foodstuffs this year”
