Brussels, 28/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - on Thursday 27 February, farm body Copa-Cogeca called on the European Commission “to take urgent action to stop imports of citrus fruit contaminated with Black Spot disease coming into the EU from South Africa in 2014, after the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) released a new report Friday.”
Copa-Cogeca says that EFSA has disovered a high risk of the disease entering the EU from contaminaed South African fruit. The disease is not found in the EU at the moment, but is easily spread from one fruit to another and can affect other fruit as well.
In 2013, as many as 38 cargo loads of produce contaminated with Black Spot were detected at the borders in citrus fruit from South Africa, putting EU citrus fruit growers in a very risky position for most of the year. “The Commission only suspended imports in 2013 when the season had already finished which had no impact,” regrets the farm organisation. Copa-Cogeca commented: “It is vital to protect our 500,000 hectares of European citrus fruit orchards and 10 million tonnes of produce from being contaminated with Black Spot. We import 400.000 tonnes of produce from South Africa and this should not put at risk 10 million tonnes in the EU.”
Monitoring must also be stepped up to protect against imports from South America and the EU plant health system should be reinforced, Copa-Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen warned. (LC)