Source: European Parliament
Question for written answer E-002605/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Cristina Maestre (S&D), Leire Pajín (S&D), Sandra Gómez López (S&D)
According to Eurobarometer, the vast majority of people in the EU would like to know where their food comes from. For rice, the current labelling rules make it easier for some traders to deliberately confuse consumers about the quality and origin of the product.
One example of this is a well-known distributor of short-grain rice that sells the product with labels bearing images that evoke Valencian rice-growing traditions and displays its address in Valencia but not the origin of the product. The traceability study carried out by the Government of the Autonomous Community of Valencia found that it was rice imported from third countries.
The voluntary nature of the indication of origin on rice labelling allows for a whole range of misleading practices for consumers and causes serious harm to the EU rice sector. European rice growers are calling for greater distinction to be drawn between their product and lower-quality imports from South-East Asia.
Given the difficult situation this sector is going through:
What is the reason for keeping the voluntary nature of origin labelling for rice, when it is already mandatory for many other agricultural products?
Submitted: 27.6.2025