Cape Town - While citrus farmers and other stakeholders in agriculture have welcomed the news that the government has negotiated a settlement with the European Union (EU) to clear South African citrus fruit - which was blocked from EU Ports - the struggle is not over yet.
In June, the EU’s Standing Committee on Plant, Animal, Food and Feed published new regulations requiring the cold treatment for oranges heading to Europe as a means to address False Codling Moth (FCM) interceptions from Southern African orange exports.
The new measures included amended additional phytosanitary declarations for grapefruit and soft citrus, and revised cold treatment regime for oranges that required fruit from South Africa to undergo mandatory cold-treatment processes and precooling steps for up to 25 days before consignments are shipped.
The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) said on Thursday that at the time of the new measures' publication, there were consignments that were certified, and had already left for the EU.
Additionally, some were also in the process of being exported and this was unrealistic.
DALRRD spokesperson Reggie Ngcobo said “So far, the department, with information being submitted by industry, is re-certifying orange consignments blocked in the Netherlands and Italian ports and, we are receiving confirmation that the containers are being cleared.”
However, Citrus Growers Association (CGA) EU Market Access special envoy Deon Joubert said to date the impasse has cost local citrus growers over R200 million in losses and that the deal had not resolved the massive ongoing threat to the citrus industry.
He defined this threat as “the long-term implementation of the unjustified, impractical and discriminatory EU FCM regulation on South African oranges, which are going to be impossible to implement by the local industry going forward”.
Last month, Joubert said the new EU regulations were politically motivated and said he feared they could see R654 million of SA citrus destroyed.
While he welcomed the deal, provincial Agriculture Standing Committee member Peter Marais (Freedom Front Plus) said: “In terms of geo-political power struggles a warning shot has been fired by the West over our bows. As South Africa we should guard against burning our bridges to the West and cuddling up to China and Russia as we did over Ukraine”.
Agriculture MEC Ivan Meyer said: “This is good news. Sadly, the delay has come at an estimated loss of R200 million for our exporters. The next step is to ensure a successful and permanent outcome in response to the complaint filed by SA at the World Trade Organisation.”
He said the citrus industry is a key role-player in the Western Cape Agriculture sector and that the Province would continue to support the industry in order to protect jobs and the economy.
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za