EU to revise citrus black spot ‘emergency’ controls

The EU will be revising its current “emergency measures” against citrus black spot (CBS), set to expire in March 2019. This was according to European Commission spokesperson, Anca Paduraru, who was responding to recent complaints by the Citrus Growers’ Association of Southern Africa (CGA) that the EU was being unreasonable in its stringent CBS controls.

Paduraru said the EU was not strengthening its CBS controls, but rather maintaining its current import requirements to prevent the disease from entering the region.

“To ensure safe trade while maintaining the trade flow, specific import requirements were established. These additional emergency measures were justified due to the recurrent number of interceptions of CBS in citrus fruit at the EU borders,” Paduraru said.

She added that these measures were supported by scientific evidence, and applied not only to citrus from South Africa, but also other non-EU countries.

“Furthermore, thanks to these strict requirements, the EU can allow the imports of citrus fruit from CBS-infected areas, while other trade partners only allow imports from pest-free areas. During the current season, there were two interceptions of CBS [in citrus] from South Africa,” Paduraru added.

Deon Joubert, CGA’s special envoy for market access and EU matters, told Farmer’s Weekly that South African producers had, for a number of years, significantly improved their controls for CBS and false codling moth (FCM) to meet the EU’s phytosanitary requirements.

“We are, by far, the best in the world at controlling CBS and FCM in our exported citrus. But it costs us R1,86 billion annually to do so, which is a significant portion of the approximately R18 billion of citrus that we export every year. The EU does not seem willing to recognise our efforts,” Joubert said.

He reiterated CGA’s stance that, based on scientific research and in agreement with the world panel on CBS, the disease was spread by leaves. Moreover, the EU’s Mediterranean climate did not support the establishment of CBS. – Lloyd Phillips

FW ARCHIVE ABOVE: The EU has defended the strict controls imposed on citrus exports to prevent citrus black spot from entering the region.