18/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - Contaminated citrus fruit in South Africa. On 16 March, COPA-COGECA urged the European Commission “immediately” to put in place measures to protect against contaminated imports of citrus fruit coming in from South Africa. The Commission is called upon to act to prevent the disease from reaching Europe, and to restrict imports until it has been eradicated. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has warned that there is a high risk of importing the highly contagious Black Spot disease, which has been found in citrus fruit from South Africa and which currently does not exist in the EU. Pekka Pesonen, Secretary General of COPA-COGECA, states that “we cannot take the risk of importing the disease. The impact would be disastrous for EU citrus fruit producers, particularly southern countries already being badly hit by a severe economic crisis”. (LC/transl.fl)