New “politically motivated” EU regulations could see R654 million of South African citrus destroyed, the Citrus Growers Association of South Africa (CGA) said yesterday.
Deon Joubert, CGA special envoy for Market Access and EU Matters, said last month the European Union’s standing committee on plant, animal food and feed (Scopaff) published what he called drastic, and arguably misinformed new regulations requiring the cold treatment for oranges heading to the EU, as a means to address false codling moth interceptions from Southern African orange exports.
Joubert said if enforced this month, these new regulations could result in millions of cartons of citrus headed for the EU being destroyed.
“Despite objections from a number of countries, including European markets that import South African oranges, these new regulations were published in the Official Journal of the EU on June 21, 2022 stating that these “shall apply from July 14, 2022,” Joubert said.
These regulations make extensive changes to the phytosanitary requirements for citrus coming from South Africa.
For instance, imports of citrus fruit would have to undergo mandatory cold treatment processes and pre-cooling steps for specific periods (up to 25 days of cold treatment) before consignments were shipped.
Joubert said these new requirements differed significantly from South Africa’s existing rigorous false codling moth risk-management system, which had been highly effective in protecting European production from the threat of pest or disease, including the false codling moth over several years, and was supported by scientific studies.
He said the nature of the cold treatment prescribed in the new regulations was contrary to scientific evidence, making it an arbitrary, unjustified and unnecessarily trade restrictive measure and accordingly contravenes international requirements for such phytosanitary trade regulations.
“Local citrus growers export 800 000 tonnes of high-quality citrus fruit to the EU annually, yet the interceptions have been consistently low over three years – with 19 (2019), 14 (2020) and 15 (2021) interceptions. This is in stark contrast to the false codling moth interceptions from other Third World importing countries, which have been much higher – with 53, 129 and 58 interceptions over the same period. But no measures have been proposed against these countries.”
According to CGA, a significant portion of South Africa’s commercial orange production will also not be able to withstand the new prescribed cold treatment.
Organic and “chem-free” oranges were particularly prone to chilling injury and will be most severely impacted, even though no interceptions have been reported in the EU on these environmentally friendly and sustainable orange types.
South Africa was engaging with its counterparts in the EU to reconsider the regulations that appeared to be nothing more than a “politically motivated move by Spanish producers to freeze out Southern Africa’s citrus from the European market.”
However, Joubert said of immediate concern was the fact that there were currently numerous shipments of citrus fruit en route to the EU with phytosanitary certificates issued before July 14, 2022 based on South Africa’s existing systems approach.
These shipments will reach the EU after July 14, by which time the EU’s new phytosanitary requirements will apply.
As a result, an estimated 3.2 million cartons of citrus valued at R605m currently en route to the region could potentially be destroyed by the authorities.
“This will not only result in large gaps in the supply chain and higher prices for European consumers, at a time when the region faces the real risk of food insecurity due to the ongoing Russian-Ukraine conflict but will also severely threaten the sustainability and profitability of the South African citrus industry.
In particular, it will put 140 000 jobs that the local industry sustains mostly in rural areas, at risk,” he said.
Joubert said the fact that the authorities were trying to enforce these new regulations a mere 23 days after publication, making it impossible for South African growers to comply, highlighted how unjustified and discriminatory this legislation was.
Agricultural Business Chamber(Agbiz) chief economist, Wandile Sihlobo, said: “The EU is one of the leading markets, alongside the UK. Hence, we should be concerned as a country that the recent changes in plant regulations in the EU will likely have a detrimental impact on our citrus industry.”
Daniel Johnson, spokesperson for Western Cape Agriculture MEC Ivan Meyer, said citrus expansion in the Western Cape created about 4 000 additional full-time jobs between 2014 and 2019.
“Any threat to the growth of the citrus export base will negatively impact job creation in the Western Cape. We will continue to support the industry as it takes steps to protect its markets. At the same time, we will support initiatives aimed at securing greater market access opportunities by building on the close collaborations and partnerships we have with the industry,” Johnson said.
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