SA citrus industry rejects Spanish call for import ban

THE LOCAL citrus industry has rejected calls by Spanish citrus growers for the banning of South African citrus imports citing the incidence of black spot disease as unfounded. “In 2000 the South African government submitted a Pest Risk Assessment (PRA) that proved that Citrus Black Spot (CBS) was of no phytosanitary threat to the EU citrus industries,” Justin Chadwick, CEO of the South African Citrus Growers’ Association (CGA) told FTW. The EU has never completed its assessment, leaving the PRA an issue hanging in the air. “There is clear scientific evidence that CBS cannot establish itself in the EU, therefore the concerns of the Spanish citrus industry are unfounded.” The CGA returned to the EU Commission earlier this month and asked them to complete their investigation and acknowledge the findings of the South African PRA to allay contamination fears in the Spanish citrus industry Ava-Asaja, the Valencia growers’ organisation calling for the ban, has claimed that from January to November 2007, up to 40 lots of South African citrus were found to be affected by black spot. “There were more incidences than previous years. This could be expected as it was a record volume year and as such more consignments were sent than ever before. The number of interceptions are a minuscule percentage of the number sent to Europe – less than 1% of 1%,” says Chadwick. “We will continue to provide excellent quality citrus that does not pose a risk to target markets,” adds Chadwick. “All importers I spoke to at the recent Fruit Logistica Trade fair in Berlin remarked on the excellent quality of South African citrus in 2007, and were hard pressed to procure adequate supply for 2008.”