South Africa, the world’s second-largest exporter of fresh citrus after Spain, lodged a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) last month after the EU introduced new plant safety and health requirements that orange farmers say threaten their survival.
FILE: Unpicked oranges. Image: Hans Braxmeier from Pixabay
JOHANNESBURG – Millions of crates of oranges are spoiling in containers stranded in European ports as South Africa and the European Union are locked in a dispute over import rules, citrus growers said.
South Africa, the world’s second-largest exporter of fresh citrus after Spain, lodged a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) last month after the EU introduced new plant safety and health requirements that orange farmers say threaten their survival.
The measures came into force in July while ships were already at sea carrying hundreds of containers full of South African fruit to Europe, causing them to be detained on arrival, according to the Citrus Growers Association of South Africa (CGA).
“It’s a complete and utter disaster,” CGA CEO Justin Chadwick told AFP by phone.
“Food that is of fantastic quality and is safe is (just) sitting there – and this is at a time when people are concerned about food safety.”
The EU rules aim to combat the potential spread of an insect called the false drone, a pest that lives in sub-Saharan Africa and feeds on fruits including oranges and grapefruit.
The new measures require South African farmers to apply an extreme chill treatment to all oranges bound for Europe and store the fruit at two degrees Celsius (35 degrees Fahrenheit) or below for 25 days.
But the CGA says the measure is unnecessary because the country already has its own, more targeted way of preventing infection.
In its complaint to the WTO, South Africa argued that the EU’s requirements were “not based on science”, more restrictive than necessary and “discriminatory”.
South African citrus growers say the requirement puts undue pressure on an already struggling industry.
“It will lead to a lot of costs… and at the moment it’s something that no grower in the world can afford,” said Hannes de Waal, who heads the nearly 100-year-old Sundays River Citrus Farm.
De Waal, whose company has orange, clementine and lemon trees spread across 7,000 hectares (17,000 acres) near the southeastern coastal town of Gkeberha, said revenues had already been cut by high shipping and fertilizer costs.
The cost of freight transport has risen sharply since the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic, as well as the price of fertilizer due to the war in Ukraine – Russia is one of the largest producers in the world.
UNDER PRESSURE
Europe is the largest market for South Africa’s nearly $2 billion citrus industry, accounting for 37 percent of all exports, according to CGA.
The new rules come at the height of South Africa’s orange season, during the southern hemisphere winter, when export operations are at their peak.
That gave fruit growers too little time to adapt, Chadwick said.
About 3.2 million boxes of citrus worth about 605 million rand ($36 million) left the port with documents that would have been incorrect on arrival.
The South African government has tried to issue new documents for shipments that meet the new criteria, but hundreds of containers could be earmarked for destruction, Chadwick said.
South Africa already has an effective moth control system, according to the CGA.
“Our system involves cold treatment but is risk-based, whereas the EU measure is a blanket measure that applies to all oranges,” Chadwick said.
“The higher the risk, the more extreme the cold treatment,” he said of the South African measures.
The dispute is now with the WTO. The parties have 60 days to negotiate a settlement. Otherwise, the applicant may request a decision by an expert panel.
The EU stated that it is confident in the “compatibility of its measures with the WTO”.
“The purpose of the EU plant safety and health criteria is to protect the territory of the Union from potentially significant impacts on agriculture and the environment if this pest establishes itself in the Union,” the EU Commission’s press secretary said in a statement.
Chadwick hopes that “reason” will prevail and a quick solution can be found.
“Our industry is under pressure. It’s basically a survival year,” he said.
