Cape Town - In a serious bid to protect South Africa’s R10 billion citrus industry, the Citrus Growers Association of Southern Africa recently decided to cut exports to Spain for the rest of 2015.
The decision was made last month at a conference of citrus growers.
The citrus industry is concerned that continued exports to Spain would threaten its market in the rest of Europe, which constitutes 44 percent of the country’s citrus exports.
In 2014, the chief executive of the Citrus Growers Association of Southern Africa, Justin Chadwick, said complying with the requirements to export citrus fruit to the EU market was costing the local industry R1 billion.
“Last year, our citrus shipments went through 28 interceptions en route to the EU, and 10 of these interceptions were in Spain, which showed there was an issue in that region,” he said.
South Africa has exported citrus to Europe for nearly a century, but in recent years instances of citrus black spot has become an issue, especially for South African exporters.
“It has became a witch-hunt where South African fruit is being targeted by inspectors despite the fact that we are not the only country with incidents of citrus black spot.
“There were also cases in Argentina and the US,” said Chadwick.
The association went as far as to send their experts to verify the validity of Spain’s testing process, but were denied access to the testing facility.
Chadwick said they found this denial of access in Spain strange and concerning, especially considering that their experts were allowed access to these facilities in The Netherlands and Germany.
He said should South African exported products go through too many inceptions, it could mean that extra restrictions would be put on products entering other European ports, which would pose a risk to their 44 percent market.
It made viable sense to cut their losses in Spain, which represented 3 percent of the export market.
Dirk Hoffmann, the managing director of Safmarine, said the shipping company supported the decision to halt all exports to Spain as it was a small price to pay to protect the future of the South African citrus industry.
“Growth and potential of the local citrus industry is being hampered by the strict regulations, and as a result there may be a shift in trade lanes as South African growers look to export to other markets instead,” he said.
“Although Europe will remain South Africa’s biggest fruit trading market, we are certainly seeing an increased appetite in other markets, including Asia and the Middle East.
“This is positive for the South African export market as it exposes the industry to a wider range of trading partners and opportunities.”
The Middle East especially was a lucrative option for South African exporters, having doubled its percentage of the South African market from 10 percent to 20 percent of the country’s overall export market.
Cape Times