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The EU has now found a fifth consignment of citrus fruit from SA with the disease. New rules only allow SA to have five detections in a season. Copa-Cogeca urged the EU Commission today to halt imports of citrus fruit coming into the EU from South Africa to protect against importing the highly contagious disease Black Spot.

Copa-Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen said “The citrus fruit sector is vital in Europe both from an economic and social point of view. The disease currently does not exist in the EU. The EU Commission has told the South African authorities repeatedly to put in place measures to prevent the spread of the disease to Europe, after the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) warned of the high risk of contamination. Now 5 cargo loads full of citrus fruit contaminated with the disease have been stopped at the borders and the Commission promised to take drastic action if this occurred. I have consequently sent a letter to the Commission urging them to suspend imports to the EU immediately until the disease has been eradicated. We cannot wait until the next impact assessment to take action. We need to protect the EU sector against the introduction of Black Spot disease as no control measures currently exist.”

He continued “The sector provides high quality, nutritious produce for 500 million EU consumers as well as ensuring employment for millions of people in EU rural areas, both upstream and downstream, especially in southern countries. We cannot take the risk of importing the disease. The impact would be disastrous for EU citrus fruit producers, particularly as southern countries are already being badly hit by a severe economic crisis”.