South African citrus has been given the all-clear for export to the European Union (EU).
STATEMENT:
The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) confirmed that its managed to negotiate a settlement that will see clearing of citrus containers stuck in ports of entry in the EU.
In a statement the department said: “To date we have managed to clear more 300 of the 509 containers and we are processing clearance of the remaining containers.”
The EU introduced new measures to regulate the risk associated with False Codling Moth (FCM) on citrus fruit. The new measures include amended additional phytosanitary declarations for grapefruit and soft citrus and a revised cold treatment regime for oranges.
The measures were published on 21 June 2022 and were set to come into force by 24 June 2022.
This implied that consignments arriving in Europe from 14 July onwards needed to comply with the new measures. Taking the shortest sailing time to the EU, it meant that consignments that left South Africa on 24 June 2022, three days from the publication should have been certified on the new measures.
The DALRRD did explain to the European Commission (EC) in a meeting and through written communication that the date was unreasonable.
At the time of the publication of the new measures, there were consignments that were certified and had already left for the EU as well as some that were in the process of being exported. The DALRRD assertions were that changing the inspection and certification system within three days was unrealistic.
In a meeting with industry on 3 August 2022, the DALRRD agreed to include other ports of entry after receiving yet another positive response from Italy on an equivalent cold treatment declaration.
The ports that were presented by the industry as those where South African oranges were rejected included ports in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.
Over 2 000 containers, at an estimated valued at R 500 million were affected by this blockage.
