Copa-Cogeca has called for EU measures to be stepped up to prevent black spot disease in citrus (CBS) coming into Europe, after 11 cases were detected at borders in imports from South Africa and ten from Argentina.
The organisations sent a letter to the EU Commission yesterday (5 October) calling for EU measures to be reinforced to prevent CBS from entering Europe.
Copa-Cogeca secretary general Pekka Pesonen warned: “It is just a question of time before black spot in citrus fruit comes into the EU unless the EU Commission takes tough action and puts in place real measures to prevent the spread of the contagious disease. Already, 11 cases were detected at the borders in citrus fruit imports from South Africa by September this year. This far exceeds the EU Commissions permissible limit of five as set out in EC Decision 2014/422.
'Last year 25 cases were intercepted and 35 cases in 2013,' he continued. 'There were also ten cases detected this year at the borders in citrus fruit imports from Argentina. This is unacceptable. The situation is unsustainable. Measures currently in place are not sufficient.
“The Commission already stated in its animal and plant health strategy that 'prevention is better than cure', yet in the light of the current situation, not enough is being done to ensure that this criteria is met,' Pesonen added. 'If the disease enters the EU, it will be the producers who pay the price. There will not be any phytosanitary products to combat the disease. Foreign markets will be lost and many farmers will have to leave the sector. This puts at stake 500,000ha and 11m tonnes of produce as well as thousands of jobs in the EU.
'For all these reasons, Copa-Cogeca would like to ask the European Commission to revise current EU rules and adopt decisive measures such as automatically banning imports of citrus fruit from areas contaminated with Guignardia citricarpa after the sixth case has been intercepted and closely monitor imports from Argentina. This would prevent the disease from entering the EU.'
He went on to explain that CBS is a disease that is not present in Europe and its presence could have 'disastrous consequences' for the citrus sector in producer countries.
“We cannot take the risk of importing the disease,' Pesonen concluded. 'The impact would be catastrophic for EU citrus fruit producers. We only are asking to put in place the recommendations made by the European Food Safety Authority, saying that the Commission should not underestimate the high risk of black spot disease in citrus fruit spreading and contaminating European groves via imports from South Africa.'
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