EU eases black spot regulations

South African citrus growers
are gaining market share
in the EU but still have no
plans to trade with Spain
despite a dramatic decline in
black spot interceptions and
the recent loosening up of
regulations.
In terms of new EU
Commission phytosanitary
control regulations, fruit
with the black spot fungus
will be allowed into the EU if
it is intended for processing.
Spain voted against the
measures which come into
effect this EU summer,
claiming that fruit imported
for processing could still
find its way onto the shelves.
The commission has also
proposed abandoning its
decision to strengthen
controls when six or more
cases are detected in a year.
The Citrus Growers’
Association’s special envoy
to the EU, Deon Joubert,
said fruit exported to the
EU for industrial juicing
had zero risk of propagating
black spot because the rind
was destroyed at a specified
destination and there was
no chance of destroying an
orchard.
“It’s not really a big
advantage but what it
recognises is that SA has
done a really good job in
bringing this down. It’s
not a big allowance but it’s
something,” he said.
“We have done fantastically
well over the past few years
and have come from a huge
crisis to normality, showing
SA’s ability to mitigate risk,”
he said.
“We have sprayed, we have
done inspections and audits
and it has cost us roughly R1
billion a year – and we have
shown we can take it down
from 35 in 2013 to 15,” he
said.
Joubert believes that
Spain’s objections are more
about SA’s increasing market
share in the EU which poses
a competitive threat to local
growers than issues around
black spot. Dti minister
Rob Davies earlier labelled
the focus on black spot as
being fundamentally driven
by protectionist rather than
plant health concerns.
Joubert said SA growers
had increased EU market
share fourfold from 33
million cartons in 1997 to
124 million in 2015.
“As a housewife you
wouldn’t buy fruit that
wasn’t good and the growth
is on the back of good
quality fruit. We are starting
to encroach on the Spanish
volumes as we are producing
in a more cost-efficient
manner,” he said.
“We are not exporting to
Spain because in 2014, 36%
of interceptions (10 out of
28 cases) were in Spain on
3.4% of our volumes. We felt
we were looking for trouble
and now they are crying
and arguing and saying we
should come back. We had
only 400 odd containers
landing in Spain,” he said.
Joubert added that SA’s
interceptions were far lower
than other countries and had
declined to 15 cases out of
36 000 containers in 2015,
an incidence of 0.041%.
This compares to Uruguay
which had 61 interceptions
out of just 2750 containers
and Argentina which had
17 interceptions out of 8500
containers.
“We are the best of
the defaulters but they
threatened us on market
closure,” he said.
CAPTION
Fruit with the black spot fungus will be allowed entry to the EU if it is intended for processing.