The State Inspectorate of Agriculture (ISHB) issued a statement after receiving a notification from the EU Rapid Alert System (RASAFF – Window) from the Republic of Croatia regarding a shipment of green cabbage (brassica oleracea var sabauda), which was identified as unsafe by the Croatian customs service during import.
Initially, the ISHB emphasized that the media presented reports that were not accurate because they mentioned shipments of cabbage, while in this specific case it is about green cabbage.
“According to the Croatian report, the presence of the prohibited active substance imidacloprid was found in the product, which has been prohibited for use since 1.12.2020 within the framework of EU regulation 2020/1643. The export was carried out on 9.1.2025, while the shipment that was held at the border crossing was in a total quantity of 2.700 kilograms,” the ISHB emphasizes.
After receiving this information, the ISHB conducted 20 extraordinary inspections by internal phytosanitary inspectors at the regional buyer and exporter. In that case, it was found that the agricultural product kale was purchased from the agricultural economy in the village of Josifovo, Vallandovo.
Additional checks and analyses have been carried out over the past few days.
The Director of the Institute of Plant Protection, Vase Anakiev, called for keeping a list of records of the treatment of plants and plant products to be mandatory.
“The Institute of Agricultural Safety continuously monitors all aspects of the safety of agricultural products exported or imported into our country. Our fundamental task is to ensure that the products we send to foreign markets, as well as those we import, do not contain prohibited or dangerous active substances that may pose a risk to human health. In the case of green cabbage exported to Croatia, after the controls and analyses carried out, we can conclude that there is no presence of dangerous substances. But we will continue with intensive supervision in order to ensure the safety of all agricultural products in our country”, Anakiev added.
In the country, the ISHB emphasizes, the market for pesticides containing imidacloprid is already regulated and regular and extraordinary inspection supervisions are continuously carried out.