The Spanish citrus sector has sent a letter to the President of the Commission, Jean Claude Juncker, setting out concerns about the threat to plant citrus imports from third countries contagion risk of “black spot”. One more year, the industry insists the Commission to prepare an automatic reaction, that if South Africa resends the contaminated fruit export season and if more than five interceptions are recorded, the EU close the border.
At the same time, the sector has asked the Commission for the implementation of a strategy of protection from Brussels, coordinate and harmonize the inspection services in border European citrus sector has indicated that can not stand one more year to see how management underestimates the risk of the situation described or inhibited taking decisions be influenced by the commercial interests of some countries.
The industry pointed out that the threat of South Africa joins the citrus imported from other countries that have demonstrated or confirmed in 2015 its insecurity as Uruguay who accumulated 70 interceptions Phyllosticta citricarpa, Argentina with 17 and Brazil with 13. A trial the sector these are sufficient for the Commission to take urgent reasons, and before the start of the export season 2016, exceptional measures to prevent the introduction and spread of this organism in the Union, also from those countries.
They have also used the letter to express interest in the sector by the work of the Commission to review import requirements citrus from third countries and to strengthen plant health legislation within the framework of the revision of the annexes of Directive 2000/29 / EC. Some works that apparently will not be approved before the export season 2017. As the details of implementation of the new regulation of plant protection at the border, especially with regard to “list of high-risk products that are temporarily prohibited until they are reevaluated, “which will not be fully implemented until 2019, have lamented.
The sector also hopes that these new provisions do not be late, and not left in “wet paper” because, come the time of writing the fine print, the Commission will pay more attention to the pressure of lobbies trade and certain EEMM not producers, and less on the goal of their experts in crop protection criteria.
Finally, the citrus sector recalled the strategic nature of this sector, 600,000 hectares of European plantations faced with the threat and spread some risk of contamination and disease “black spot”.
