SA’s citrus growers condemn EU’s ‘bureaucratic coldness’
‘The EU showed no interest in reviewing its position on CBS as a quarantine pest … refusing to consider any reasonable requests for relaxation of the excessive and unsustainable protocols’
The Citrus Growers Association, which represents the interests of producers of citrus fruits throughout Southern Africa, has hit out at the EU, saying it seems determined to meet SA’s best efforts of mitigating the risk of Citrus Black Spot (CBS) symptoms with “unflinching bureaucratic coldness”. CBS is a fungal disease that affects the rind of the fruit, but does not result in decay. At a meeting in Brussels on Monday between the EU’s directorate-general for health and food safety, the department of agriculture, forestry and fisheries and a delegation of South African citrus producers, the EU acknowledged this year as a good season, said Jan-Louis Pretorius, the director of the Citrus Growers Association. “However, the EU showed no interest in reviewing its position on CBS as a quarantine pest, demanding full compliance and refusing to consider any reasonable requests for relaxation of the excessive and unsustainable protocols governing the pest.” SA exported more than 800,000 tonn...
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