EU delegation approves citrus exports

Published Jun 25, 2014

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An EU delegation has resolved to continue importing South African citrus fruit provided producers take measures to combat citrus black spot.

The delegation, which included representatives from the Netherlands, Spain and Italy, was taken on a site visit, hosted by the Citrus Growers Association (CGA), to Rosle Farms in Limpopo yesterday.

Charles Rossouw, a citrus farmer and director of Rosle Farms, said a lot was at stake for the country, which is the biggest exporter of citrus to the EU market.

“We need to maintain a relationship with the EU and ensure that agreements are put in place,” he said.

South Africa has 1 600 citrus growers with 63 000 hectares under fruit. The industry exports about 1.5 million tons annually and employs about 120 000 people in rural areas. Citrus growers earn between R6 billion and R8bn a year.

South Africa was the biggest exporter in the southern hemisphere and there was a need to ensure that products “get to the distant markets in the freshest form possible”, Justin Chadwick, the chief executive of the association, said.

“We are all facing a dilemma in terms of the citrus black spot issue, especially since three-quarters of oranges to the EU are from South Africa and the Valencia oranges are our biggest export,” he said.

Rossouw said instances of citrus black spot had arisen about eight years ago and a spraying programme had been initiated to combat the disease.

He said as a farmer, and the owner of a thriving citrus business, he was more concerned about the harm that could be done to the environment, just to keep some areas free of the disease, which presented a low hazard to human health.

“We conduct risk assessments and audits on our sub-contractors, which we furnish to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries before we export,” he said.

Rosle Farms had 56 orchards registered with the department.

Chadwick explained that the industry had been growing at between 7 percent and 8 percent a year for the past 10 years.

He said it had continued to experience explosive growth even in the face of constraints from various dynamics in the South African economy.

Juan Sell, the ambassador from Spain, said there were differing scientific opinions and a new report into the dangers of citrus black spot had driven the need for the EU to remain free of the disease.

However, Rossouw interjected, saying the situation was not as bad as everyone was making it out to be.

He said it was not about one product unit but the whole industry and if all exports to the EU had to be diverted, other markets would be flooded and it would be a disaster for local growers.

Ambassador Roeland van de Geer, the head of the EU delegation, said contrary to what had been reported, South Africa was still allowed to export citrus to the EU markets on condition that it implemented additional sanitary measures.

Explaining how the citrus was debugged, he said the workers would pick 100 fruit which would be put into netting bags and then dumped into ephephon, a chemical solution, and left there for two weeks.

Citrus black spot had latent infections which could not be seen with the naked eye and ephephon changed the colour of the oranges to yellow, which enabled growers to identify these, he said.

Van de Geer said the efforts made to combat the disease were very impressive, especially the co-operation between all stakeholders, and in his view the exports could continue.

“As we speak there are no restrictions and South African growers should be applauded for what they have been doing and no limits are imposed as all have agreed on joint measures,” he said.

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