• EU suspends Malian mango exports over fruit fly concerns
• 80% of Mali’s $11M mango exports go to EU market
• Mali launches review to restore certification and export access

The European Union has temporarily suspended mango exports from Mali, according to Mouhamed Diarra, a technical advisor to the Malian Ministry of Agriculture. The announcement was made on September 1 and reported by the news outlet Maliweb.

The European Commission's Directorate-General for Health took the action in response to a rise in sanitary interceptions of fruit flies on Malian mango shipments since the 2022 season. The decision not only calls into question the reliability of Mali's national control and certification system but also alarms those in the industry, as the EU is their primary market. In 2024, Mali’s total mango exports were nearly $11 million, with roughly 80% of that value going to the EU, according to data from the Trade Map platform.

In light of the ban, Mali’s Plant Protection Office (OPV) organized a national workshop from September 1 to 3 to evaluate its control and certification system for mango exports. The event was held in partnership with the Liaison Committee for Entrepreneurship-Agriculture-Development (COLEAD). The goal is to implement corrective measures to regain the trust of European partners.

"Over these three days, we will review the current system," said Victor Boro, COLEAD's activity monitoring manager in Mali. "At the end of this exercise, a priority action plan will be established and presented to the European Union to quickly resume exports of Malian mangoes. The approach will be holistic, involving all links in the value chain, to get out of this crisis as soon as possible."

The issue of fruit flies also affects other West African countries like Senegal and Burkina Faso. Official data shows that mango interceptions at EU borders in 2016 led to an estimated $10.5 million loss for the region's exporters, representing more than a third of the total export value for that year.

Stéphanas Assocle