Brussels, 18/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - EU member state experts, meeting on Friday 15 April, approved the emergency measures proposed by the Commission introducing stricter requirements on the import of citrus fruit from Brazil, South Africa and Uruguay.
“The measures are intended to increase the protection against fruits contaminated with citrus black spot”, a harmful plant disease not native to Europe. Citrus black spot, which can cause significant damage in orchards, is not yet present in Europe.
Citrus black spot is caused by the fungus Phyllosticta citricarpa and attacks citrus plants, causing high losses to citrus fruit production.
The EU has decided to keep in place the restrictions on imports of citrus fruit from South Africa and Brazil in light of the interceptions of infected fruit from these two countries. Uruguay has been added to the list of third countries to which the precautionary measures apply, given the high number of interceptions in 2015.
Specific conditions are set out for the import, movement, storage and processing of citrus fruits destined exclusively for processing into juice. The emergency measures may be reviewed if the EU notes a rise in the coming months of interceptions of fruit infected with citrus black spot.
According to a press release from Copa-Cogeca, which criticises the Commission proposal for its lack of ambition, 70 cases of citrus black spot have been detected in imports from Uruguay, 15 from South Africa, 17 from Argentina and 13 from Brazil. This far exceeds the Commission's permissible limit of 5 set by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and accepted by the European Commission in the decision of 2 July 2014 setting out measures in respect of certain citrus fruits originating in South Africa to prevent the introduction into and the spread within the Union of Phyllosticta citricarpa. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)