Rabat – A fruit wholesaler in Dordogne received a one-year suspended prison sentence for labeling imported fruits, mainly from Morocco, as well as Portugal and the Netherlands, as French products.
The suspect also received a fine of €50,000 for mislabeling Portugal and Netherlands fruits as French, according to AFP.
The mislabeled fruits included raspberries, blueberries, redcurrants, blackberries, blackcurrants, chestnuts, and kiwis.
AFP said a consumer fraud watchdog announced that the criminal court found the manager of Fruits rouges du Perigord guilty of deception on Monday for labeling 412 tons of foreign fruit as French between 2020 and 2021.
“The misleading commercial practice involves presenting products as French by falsifying their country-of-origin labeling,” according to the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control.
The mislabeled shipments represent around 5% of France’s annual red fruit production, equating to over €1.5 million in revenue.
TV program Zone Interdite exposed the fraud initially in 2022 through a program aired on M6.
Morocco is one of the main partners of the EU, including France.
In April, the Delegation of the European Union to Morocco said that trade between Morocco and the European Union exceeded €60 billion ($65 billion) in 2024.
Agricultural trade reached a record €7 billion ($7.6 billion) in 2024, representing 12% of total goods exchanged between the two sides. Notably, Morocco recorded a trade surplus of more than €1.4 billion ($1.5 billion) in the sector.
The North African country was the EU’s leading vegetable supplier last year, with export volumes topping 1 million tons and generating €1.7 billion ($1.84 billion) — up 7% in 2023.
