EIR/202500495341 · FOI/EIR · partially withheld
Scottish seed potato exports to Egypt information: EIR release
Information requested
Information held by SASA in relation to Scottish seed potato exports to Egypt for the 2025 season:
1. The total tonnage (metric tonnes) of Hermes seed potatoes that have passed SASA inspection and were cleared/certified for export to Egypt for the 2025 season.
2. The total tonnage (metric tonnes) of Cara seed potatoes that have passed SASA inspection and were cleared/certified for export to Egypt for the 2025 season.
Response
As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.
This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.
I enclose a copy of all of the information you requested.
The answer to your question is as follows:
The total tonnage of Hermes seed potatoes that has passed inspection for export to Egypt this season is 16,393.7 tonnes The total tonnage of Cara seed potatoes that has passed inspection for export to Egypt this season is 27,897.5 tonnes
The 2025 inspection season runs from 1st September 2025 to 31st August 2026 although any seed potatoes being exported to Egypt must have been inspected prior to 5th December 2025 due to restrictions set by the Egyptian authorities.
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
Contact Please quote the FOI reference Central Correspondence Unit Email: contactus@gov.scot Phone: 0300 244 4000 The Scottish Government St Andrew's House Regent Road Edinburgh EH1 3DG
Detected exemption language
We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA. This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes.
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