Johannesburg - The stringent sanitary measures imposed by the EU on South African citrus imports have been met with suspicion by some local growers and insiders who feel that the EU is engaging in protectionist practices.
On Tuesday, the EU lauded citrus growers for implementing measures to control citrus black spot, which would ensure their continued participation in the R2.7 billion-a-year EU market for the fruit, but many are unhappy with the current arrangements.
A delegation led by the EU’s ambassador to South Africa, Roeland van de Geer, Spanish ambassador Juan Sell, as well as representatives from the Netherlands and Italy, was shown first hand at Rosle Farms in Limpopo how the measures the bloc had requested were being implemented.
A South African player in the citrus industry, who wished to remain anonymous, told Business Report that the EU’s position on citrus black spot was disingenuous because there was more to the issue than met the eye.
“Our position has always been that something other than citrus black spot is behind this. The EU is just trying to protect their market by limiting South African goods on their shelves,” the insider said.
Deon Joubert, the special envoy of market access and EU matters at the Citrus Growers Association, said the industry body took the position that there was a world panel dedicated to researching citrus black spot, which consisted of representatives from the US, Africa and South America.
This world panel had conducted scientific research, which found that fruit containing citrus black spot could not contaminate trees in other countries. He confirmed that some were uneasy about the EU’s stringent sanitation measures, which required the use of chemicals in spraying programmes that might be harmful to the environment.
“It is not a pathway and it cannot spread the disease by taking it to a non-contaminated area,” he said.
In addition, research undertaken by the EU itself in 2004 found that the risk of citrus black spot was very low, but now the Europeans were changing their tune, arguing that alternative research suggested otherwise.
Sell said last week that he had seen research stating that citrus black spot would be hazardous to EU orchards.
“These types of utterances are protectionist and South Africa’s industry position is that the scientific view of the world panel says there is no risk so why come up with this now when South Africa’s easy peelers and mandarins are going to the EU market in September?” asked a grower who wished to remain anonymous.
He added that it was suspicious that these measures were being enforced at a time when these fruits from South Africa and Spain were set to compete for the EU market.
The difference between the products from these nations was that the easy peeler fruits from South Africa looked and tasted better than the ones from Spain, he said.
The EU’s position was also suspicious because the UK did not have a problem with citrus black spot and imports from South Africa. It was only continental Europe that wanted these measures, he added.