The decision by the South African citrus sector to stop exporting to Spain remains unchanged. Deon Joubert, the industry’s Special Envoy to the EU market, states that it was a move intended to prevent the threat of exports being suspended, since with just about 3.4% of South African citrus shipments, Spain accounted for 36% of CBS interception strikes last season.
Joubert explains the sector has held several meetings, looking into increasing its exports to other European destinations, like Italy, France or Portugal, stressing that “we only ask the authorities of importing countries to be aware that if inspections don’t find a viable culture, the fruit doesn’t pose a threat.”
“Southern European countries, in any case, are not traditional consumers of South African citrus fruit, since imports to southern Europe are more geared towards packing programmes out of their own seasons.”
Regarding the threat of the spread of the False Coding Moth (FCM), which has also raised concerns amongst growers, Deon said “last year, I believe we found a couple of cases, which were notified and we removed.
The most important thing to note is that there’s a Risk Management System in place; the citrus industry is also off the radar at the moment.”
