The Citrus Growers Association of South Africa (CGA) said yesterday in a statement it had it had written to the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (Dalrrd), Thoko Didiza, requesting that she makes a priority the ‘’unfair and discriminatory pest regulations“ by the European Union (EU) a priority at the 5th African Union (AU) - EU Agriculture Ministerial Conference taking place in Rome at the end of this month.
Justin Chadwick, the CEO at CGA, said the EU's regulations on False Coddling Moth (FCM) and Citrus Black Spot (CBS) were posing a threat to the future of the local citrus industry.
‘’AU and EU Ministers of Agriculture will be attending the Conference along with representatives of various international organisations, which makes it a crucial opportunity for the South African government to push for a resolution on these critical matters in order to safeguard the 140 000 jobs our sector sustains,’’ Chadwick said.
The local orange export season kicks in towards the end of the next month, and the impact of the new FCM regulations were expected to be devastating. Their introduction in the middle of last year's export season already resulted in R200 million in losses for growers, with this number expected to spiral out of control during the current season.
Current estimates were that around 20% of oranges produced for Europe would not be shipped this year because of the new regulations. This meant that approximately 80 000 tons of oranges might not make it to European supermarket shelves, resulting in a further R500 million economic blow to the industry.
The CGA said it remained of the view that the new regulations had no basis in science and prescribed cold treatment that simply was not warranted.
‘’Our industry has presented clear evidence that our stringent FCM risk management system is highly effective, ensuring that 99.9% of oranges entering the EU are pest free (with only 2 FCM interceptions detected in the over 400 000 tons of oranges shipped to the region in 2022),’’ it said.
Despite this evidence, months of consultations between the South African government and EU counterparts at a WTO level had achieved no progress in the matter.
Chadwick said CBS was mostly a cosmetic issue that only affected a tiny percentage of fruit exported, largely as a result of South Africa’s world-class control measures. Even though there was scientific evidence that citrus fruit without leaves was not a pathway for the spread of CBS, the EU had continued to enforce draconian and unreasonable measures on citrus being exported from countries where the pest was found.
‘’While it is evident that these restrictions are nothing more than a protectionist impulse by the EU, local citrus growers nevertheless had to implement a comprehensive CBS risk management programme over the past few years,’’ he said.
Taken together, the CBS and FCM protocols and proactive measures were costing the local citrus industry R3.7 billion annually, placing further cost pressures on an industry that is already coping with continued loadshedding, a dysfunctional rail network, decaying roads, and congested ports, CGA said.
Last month, Paul Makube, a senior agricultural economist at FNB, said despite its recent successes, the citrus industry continued to face several challenges that threatened its sustainability as it entered this year’s export season.
A combination of domestic and global headwinds was presenting something of a perfect storm for the country’s citrus industry.
He said the global economy, including declining growth prospects and rapidly rising inflation and interest rates, were starting to bite hard into the profitability of the citrus industry worldwide and when these were coupled with fiscal pressures with the sharp rises seen in the costs of logistics, particularly the prices of reefer containers, citrus exporters’ margins had been shrinking rapidly, since 2021.
Other challenges that South Africa’s citrus producers would continue to face this year included the deterioration of infrastructure, the impact of energy insecurity and load shedding on farming, storage and cooling processes, increasing competition in many markets and the still slow progress that was being made with regards to expanding global market access, Makube said.
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