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South Africa ramps up citrus disease surveillance amid EU trade dispute

South Africa, trailing only Spain as the world's largest citrus exporter, is initiating a surveillance program in Gqeberha, a key city in the Eastern Cape, which is the country's second-largest citrus-producing region. This decision follows the detection of the African strain of citrus-greening disease in residential zones of Gqeberha. The disease, transmitted by insects, leads to leaf blotching and severely impacts fruit quality, rendering it unsellable and unfit for processing.

The agriculture department's newly announced surveillance efforts aim to assess necessary interventions. This move comes amidst an ongoing dispute with the European Union concerning fungal infections, with the EU having imposed stringent pest-control requirements on South African citrus imports. These measures, targeting citrus black spot and the false codling moth, threaten the economic feasibility of South Africa's citrus exports to the EU, valued at $847 million in the previous year. In response, South Africa has sought the intervention of the World Trade Organization to resolve the trade disagreements.

Source: BNN Bloomberg

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