The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published a report on 21 July 2026 detailing the outcomes of a webinar on Conotrachelus nenuphar, the plum curculio, as part of a series of 20 webinars on EU priority pests. The webinar provided an overview of the pest's characteristics and included a practical simulation using the RiPEST tool, aimed at improving plant health crisis preparedness through enhanced surveillance training. The recording is available on EFSA's YouTube channel and the EU Academy platform.
The webinar, the thirteenth in the series, was prepared and held under a framework contract for technical and scientific support to EFSA's training courses on plant pest surveillance. It was promoted by EFSA in collaboration with academic experts. The event report notes that the webinar is part of a broader effort to strengthen EU preparedness against priority pests, which are regulated under EU plant health legislation. The plum curculio is a beetle native to North America that attacks stone fruit trees, and its introduction into the EU could cause significant economic damage to orchards. The training series targets plant health officials and surveillance professionals across Member States.
The report does not specify the date of the webinar itself, but the publication of the event report on 21 July 2026 confirms the activity. The series builds on previous EFSA pest categorisations and survey cards for Conotrachelus nenuphar, which have informed the ranking of candidate priority pests. The webinar's practical focus on RiPEST, a risk-based pest surveillance tool, is designed to help national authorities design and implement effective monitoring programmes.
Stakeholders most impacted include national plant protection organisations in EU Member States, which are responsible for implementing surveillance and reporting obligations under EU plant health rules. The training may reduce the administrative burden of designing surveillance programmes by providing standardised methodologies. Fruit growers, particularly those in stone fruit sectors such as plums, peaches, and cherries, stand to benefit from early detection and rapid response capabilities, potentially avoiding costly eradication measures. However, the training also implies that Member States may need to allocate resources for participation and subsequent implementation of surveillance protocols. EFSA itself benefits from improved data quality from national surveillance, supporting its risk assessment functions. The webinar series does not impose new legal obligations but supports existing regulatory frameworks, such as Regulation (EU) 2016/2031 on protective measures against plant pests.
No institutional follow-up is specified in the report, but the remaining seven webinars in the series are expected to cover other priority pests, continuing the capacity-building effort.