Spanish Agriculture Minister Rosa Aguilar on Tuesday demanded that trade in her country's vegetables resume, after German laboratory tests cleared Spanish cucumbers in an E coli outbreak that has killed at least 16 people, reported dpa.
Spanish authorities had repeatedly rejected German claims that the outbreak of the virulent enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) bacterium was linked to its products.
"Now it is shown that the Spanish cucumbers were not the trigger of the EHEC infection," Aguilar said in Hungary, where she was attending an informal meeting of her European Union counterparts. "We were right."
Spain 's vegetable exports have nevertheless been severely affected, with some countries completedly blocking its products. Spanish Health Ministry sources on Tuesday said the government does not rule out seeking economic compensation from Germany over the damage to its agricultural sector.