The European Union extended the ban on Egyptian seeds and plants Tuesday. The ban was first imposed in July after EU authorities found a relationship between a shipment of grain coming from Egypt infected with a lethal strain of the bacterium E. coli and an outbreak of E. coli in Germany and France. The ban was scheduled to end Oct. 31, but Brussels decided to extend it until March 2012 due to the inefficiency of procedures taken by Egyptian authorities to guarantee the integrity of grain and plant exports. Brussels demanded a opinion from the European Institute for Nutritional Security. An opinion will be considered after its release at the end of the month. The decision to close the EU market for seeds, plants, corn and arugula from Egypt came after the discovery of a shipment with high-risk strain of E. coli, according to the Spanish newspaper Expansion. The outbreak caused 49 deaths in Germany and one in Sweden. In the French City of Bordeaux, ten were hospitalized. It caused a panic and a large decline in sales of several types of vegetables. Last year, the European Union imported 49,000 tons of the seeds in question from Egypt for 56 million EUR (U.S. $76.6 million).
