Spanish bomba rice, a vital ingredient in paella, could disappear in the latest example of EU rules from Brussels infuriating European farmers.

Producers in Valencia, the birthplace of paella, blamed the European Commission for banning a vital pesticide called tricyclazole.

It is needed to protect the harvest of bomba rice from a fungus which causes rice blast disease.

Bomba rice “is very likely to disappear,” said Miguel Minguet, a farmer in the Albufera Natural Park. “Our crop is going to be lost to regulations.”

Tractor protests have erupted in Spain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy against the bloc’s net zero plans and green laws.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, proposed withdrawing rules to halve the use of pesticides on Tuesday, as the bloc caved under recent pressure.

Relied upon for 40 years

Three producers from Valencia said their harvest of the rice, a variety grown almost exclusively in Spain, was half the 10-year average in 2023 because of the Pyricularia fungus.

Bomba rice is famed for how it swells when used in paella, in which it is traditionally cooked with chicken, rabbit and beans.

The decline in bomba rice production has caused the price to double in three years. It now sells for more than £4 per kilo.

The EU stopped authorising the pesticide because it ruled the chemical could be harmful to human health in 2018.

It had been relied upon for 40 years to combat the fungus affecting bomba rice in Spain’s wetlands, the farmers said.

Major exporters such as Brazil, India and Cambodia are widely using the pesticide to protect their own crops and the EU still allows imports to have small traces of the fungicide.

‘Two sets of rules’

Farmers in the Albufera wetlands are still able to use at least two other fungicides to protect rice production, which filter into the ecosystem and affect shrimp populations.

Emilio Gonzalez, a professor at the School of Agricultural and Forestry Engineering at the University of Cordoba, said: “There’s one set of rules for Europe and another for those producing outside.”

Imported goods need to respect residue levels set by the EU, a spokesperson for the European Commission said.

The levels “ensure the products are safe for human consumption”.

About 1,500 Italian farmers with 10 tractors will take part in a protest in Rome on Friday.

There had been concerns that thousands of farmers and hundreds of tractors could cause major disruption in the capital, having converged on the city this week.

But after days of talks between farmers and the authorities, it was agreed that a relatively modest demonstration will be held at Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano, in front of a large basilica in the historic centre of the city.

‘Insect diet’ encouraged

Brussels hopes to turn Europeans into insect-eaters as part of its war on farmers, a close ally of Georgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister, said on Wednesday.

Nicola Procaccini, a member of Ms Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, lashed out at the “madness” of the EU’s net zero plans in a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday.

He attacked an EU decision to approve the sale of insects and insect larvae for human consumption in powder and other dried forms.

“You have crushed farmers and promoted the consumption of insects and larvae,” he said, invoking an issue that has become a culture war totem for the European Right.

Protein-rich insects, which are eaten by an estimated 2 billion people on a regular basis, need much less land and water and are seen as a low-carbon alternative to meat.