Brussels, 23/04/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 23 April, COPA-COGECA called once again on the European Commission and the member states to adopt “without delay” measures to step up controls of imports on citrus fruit from South Africa. The agricultural organisations of the EU are calling for these measures to be adopted at the forthcoming meeting of the EU Standing Committee on Plant Health (29-30 April), in order to prevent the spread of black spot disease.
COPA-COGECA wrote to the European Commissioner for Health, Tonio Borg, calling on him to take action to ensure that “all citrus imports be subject to additional control measures and that citrus imports from Guignardia citricarpa (black spot disease in citrus fruits) contaminated zones be automatically banned as soon as a sixth contaminated batch is detected. This must apply to all citrus imports for the fresh produce market and the processing industry.” COPA-COGECA reiterates the high risk of black spot disease coming into the EU via imports of contaminated citrus fruits from South Africa. The disease is not currently present in the EU, but could easily spread from imported fruits.
Pekka Pesonen, the Secretary General of COPA-COGECA, stressed: “the EU Commission presented a proposal to strengthen controls on citrus fruit imports coming into the EU from South Africa in March. And although this was a step in the right direction, it must be improved to be in line with EFSA's report”.
In its letter, COPA points out that at its meeting on 27 February this year, the EU Standing Committee on Plant Health concluded that there was a need to adopt more binding measures to prevent the introduction of black spot disease in citrus fruits. The European Commission then presented the Standing Committee with a document in March regarding the preventative measures against the imports of certain citrus fruits from South Africa.
COPA “welcomes” the introduction of inspection measures at packaging stations for fruit destined for the fresh produce market (taking samples, registering operators and improving the traceability of batches). These proposals strengthen the control measures against the introduction of Guignardia citricarpa into the EU as set out in Directive 2000/29/EC, which aims to protect European citrus groves against the introduction of citrus black spot. “However, the high number of interceptions in 2013 demonstrates that South Africa's competent authorities are incapable of carrying out effective phytosanitary controls. COPA-COGECA is therefore highly concerned that the proposed control system will once again fail to function properly”, the letter states.
COPA fears that the proposed control system will once again not do its job. The organisation also regrets that fruit for processing, which represents 10% of all imports, does not fall under the scope of these additional control measures. “Indeed, this derogation could lead to the introduction and spread of the harmful organism across the EU”, the organisation warns.
“We want measures for 2014 after imports started already in March. We faced a very high risk of contamination last season and we cannot repeat it this year”, Pesonen concluded. (LC)