MEC for Agriculture in the Western Cape Ivan Meyer has appealed to his national counterpart, Minister Thoko Didiza, to urgently intervene before the EU regulations on citrus importation do significant damage to the economy.
The regulations, which require imports of citrus fruit to undergo mandatory cold treatment processes and pre-cooling steps for 25 days before importation, came into effect on Thursday.
Meyer said the Western Cape accounts for 53% of all agricultural exports in South Africa and that the sustainability of fruit, in particular citrus, was important to the province.
According to Business Report, Deon Joubert from the Citrus Growers Association of South Africa (CGA) and special envoy for Market Access and EU Matters said that the EU’s standing committee on plant, animal food and feed (Scopaff) published regulations requiring the cold treatment for oranges going to the EU as a means to address false codling moth from southern African orange exports.
False codling moth (FCM) is a polyphagous pest that affects many important South African export crops, such as citrus, stone fruit and avocado.
The CGA said the regulations were “politically motivated”, which could see R654 million worth of citrus from the country 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 stating that these ‘shall apply from July 14’,” Joubert said.
Meyer said the province cannot afford the impact these regulations would have on the citrus industry and its workers.
“The fact that authorities are trying to enforce these new regulations a mere 23 days after publication is making it impossible for South African growers to comply. It furthermore highlights how unjustified and discriminatory practices this legislation is,” Meyer said.
He said with the regulations, European consumers will have to pay higher prices, and that the local citrus production will record a significant loss.
“I, therefore, appeal to you for an urgent intervention to address this challenge at the highest level possible,” Meyer concluded in the letter to Didiza.