Black spot disease bedevils SA’s citrus exports to the EU
CITRUS growers in South Africa, the world’s secondbiggest exporter of the fruits, wanted to resume shipments to Spain once the risk of trading bans stemming from black spot disease eased, a farmers’ lobby group said.
South Africa said in March that it would avoid sending fruits to Spanish ports to avert a possible Europe-wide ban, after officials there refused South African producers permission to inspect testing facilities.
Intercepted
The nation had to halt exports to the region last year after EU authorities intercepted 16 shipments affected with black spot disease.
“Of course we would like to go back,” Deon Joubert, the Citrus Growers’ Association’s (CGA) EU envoy, said last week. “We would like to normalise things as soon as possible.”
The growers’ group is disputing findings by the European Food Safety Authority that the disease can survive transport and storage and become established in EU regions.
Justin Chadwick, the chief executive of the CGA, said in March that Spanish refusal to allow producers to inspect testing methodology raised a “red flag regarding the risk of sending any of the fruit to those ports”.
South Africa is the largest citrus shipper after Spain, according to the growers’ group. Turkey ranks third, Egypt fourth and China fifth.
The association said last week that it would suspend lemon exports to the region after the EU found three consignments of the fruit had black spot.
That would lead to financial losses for producers, it said. The nation would still ship other citrus products to Europe, Joubert said.
South Africa’s Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and other industry officials were visiting EU countries this week to learn more about dealing with black spot, he said.
“South Africa is trying very, very hard to improve the situation,” Joubert said. – Bloomberg