The Spanish Citrus Inter-branch Organization (Intercitrus) has started the process of requesting the European Commission for "documentary evidence and a verification system" that proves that South Africa is complying with the prescriptive cold treatment regulated in 2022 in its exports of oranges to the Community market.
According to the president of this inter-branch organization, Inmaculada Sanfeliu, this is Intercitrus' reaction to the evidence that the measures established so far are insufficient for the main non-EU supplier of citrus fruits to the EU to stop exporting the Thaumatotibia leucotreta pest. The organization also demands that the current cold treatment be extended to all crops that are hosts of the insect, such as mandarins and grapefruit.
Specifically, Intercitrus demands that exporters specify the port of entry of their shipments before they leave for Europe. In addition, they demand that all containers - as established by the Phytosanitary Standard ISPM 42 - incorporate the three pulp probes that must measure and record the temperature of the central part of the fruit. Thirdly, they propose creating a virtual platform in the EU to store the records of the temperatures of these three pulp probes. This information is downloaded from the data logger that each container of orange originating from a country with a false moth destined for the EU is obliged to have.
This data -which would prove compliance with cold treatment- should be available to the competent authorities of the National Plant Protection Organisms of the 27 EU Member States. These records should also be kept for at least one year, as well as the phytosanitary certificates issued at origin in order to allow a simple and automatic tracking of the treated batches.
According to Intercitrus, what has happened this year regarding the other priority pest mentioned is also very serious. Black spot (Phyllosticta citricarpa or Citrus Black Spot, CBS) is also regulated as a quarantine and priority organism in the EU, and it is one of the top 20 agricultural and wild pests with the greatest economic and environmental impact.
Thus, Intercitrus calls on the EC to renew, or rather, intensify, the current insufficient phytosanitary measures to prevent the introduction of the black spot on EU territory.
For more information:
Intercitrus
Tel.: 961943847
intercitrus@intercitrus.org