Bad quality is a bad deal
The consignment that inspectors detained in Poznan contained “damaged grains” and “live pests”. Polish MEP Ewa Zajoczkowska-Hiernik and French ex-MEP (founder of the eurosceptic Patriots party) Florian Philippot linked the batch to the EU-Mercosur trade agreement, which has been temporarily in force since May 1. According to Zajoczkowska-Hernik, the party is demonstrating the effects of the trade agreement “in practice.” She said the EU-Mercosur deal was “poisoning people for Germany’s economic interests.” Zajączkowska-Hernik’s publication was picked up by the Polish right-wing political website wPolityce.
However, official responses and open trade data analyzed by The Cube, Euronews’ fact-checking team, show that the allegations of the party’s links to the EU-Mercosur trade agreement are unsubstantiated.
Green coffee has been imported into the EU duty-free before
Critics of the EU-Mercosur agreement, which eliminates import duties on goods, argue that lower tariffs will flood Europe with agricultural products that do not meet European standards and increase pressure on food control systems and farmers.
However, public documents show that green coffee has long been imported into the EU duty-free, long before the temporary application of the EU-Mercosur agreement began. According to UN Comtrade, Brazil exported more than 15 million kilograms of green coffee to Poland in 2024 alone.
A 2011 report by the International Coffee Organization noted that “non-caffeinated green coffee can be imported duty-free into the European Union,” while processed coffee is subject to higher tariffs.
A separate trade analysis published by the USDA in February 2026 also states that “green coffee beans, which account for 97% of Brazil’s coffee exports to the EU, already enter the European market duty-free.”
Was this shipment imported under EU-Mercosur rules?
In response to a Euronews inquiry, IJHARS said the consignment had undergone “standard commercial quality checks” carried out in accordance with current national regulations. The agency did not state that the consignment entered Poland under favorable conditions related to the EU-MERCOSUR agreement, adding that customs matters are the responsibility of tax and customs authorities.
The IJHARS also noted that interception of non-compliant food products is a common practice. In 2025 alone, the agency issued 95 decisions to block food imports, affecting 121 batches of products that were supposed to enter Poland from non-EU countries.
Brazil’s ambassador to the EU, Pedro Miguel da Costa y Silva, rejected claims that the batch was linked to the EU-Mercosur agreement. “Green coffee has been imported into the EU before at a zero tariff rate. Nothing has changed,” he told Euronews, recalling that Brazil has been exporting green coffee to Europe “since the 19th century.”
Criticism of EU-Mercosur is about money and relations, quality is not the main thing
Critics of the EU-Mercosur agreement make no secret of the fact that concerns about the safety of imported food are somehow also linked to the financial sustainability of European farmers. And they still fear that cheaper products from Mercosur countries (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia) could reduce their incomes.
