/ 13 July 2024

Citrus clash: South Africa takes on the EU’s tough new export rules

Gettyimages 2160539262 594x594
Grapefruit pass through a rinsing machine on the sorting line of the Canyon Pakker's packhouse on the Blydevallei Boerdery citrus farm outside Hoedspruit. (Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

South Africa is the second largest citrus exporter behind Spain, exporting  $1.9 billion in 2022, making it crucial to the country’s economy. But South Africa finds itself embroiled in a dispute with the European Union.

The fruit makes its way to the Netherlands ($343 million), United Kingdom ($154 million), Russia ($138 million), United Arab Emirates ($137 million), and China ($134 million), according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity. 

The European Union is clearly a crucial market for the citrus industry. Disruption of this would cause financial problems for people working in the industry. 

The EU has introduced new, stricter rules on plant health to protect it from two threats, citrus black spot (CBS) and the false codling moth (FCM).

Black spot is a fungal disease that leaves fruit with speckled-like marks and lesions but does not affect the internal quality of the fruit, according to the US Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. 

Neither can the disease be transmitted by the fruit

“CBS is a fungal infection that can result in cosmetic blemishes on the affected fruit. Despite the world’s leading scientists proving that CBS cannot be transmitted through the actual fruit as a pathway, the EU has continued to enforce measures on South African citrus growers,” the department of agriculture, land reform and rural development, the department of trade, industry and competition and the Citrus Growers’ Association of Southern Africa said in a joint statement. 

The false codling moth is native to sub-Saharan Africa and is an invasive species but is unlikely to establish permanent populations in the colder parts of Europe such as Netherlands, the UK and Sweden. The moth is quite destructive because the larvae bore into fruit, such as citrus, avocado, pomegranates and macadamias. Biological controls exist to control the moth.

South Africa is adamant that the EU’s new regulations do not comply with science and are unnecessarily threatening the livelihoods of about 100 000 people — the industry employs 140 000. The country believes the new regulations mean it will be unaffordable to continue exporting citrus according to those standards.

To comply with these new regulations will mean more inspections, spraying, cold treatment and many other assessments and administration, according to Justin Chadwick, the chief executive of the Citrus Growers Association.

“South African citrus growers are spending billions of rands per year to comply with CBS and FCM measures that the industry considers unscientific and unnecessarily restrictive as South Africa already has an effective world-class risk management system that ensures safe citrus exports. Emerging citrus growers are especially hit hard by the EU measures,” Chadwick said in a statement. 

Initially, South African representatives requested consultations with EU authorities to discuss the matter, but this has not gone well. Since then, South Africa has requested the establishment of two panels at a meeting of the dispute settlement body of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to look into the EU regulations, which South Africa is calling “unscientific and discriminatory measures”. 

One of the complaints from the South African team is that its growers spend billions every year to comply with citrus black spot and false codling moth measures and the country already has an effective world-class risk management system. These new regulations are simply not affordable. 

Chadwick said: “Last year we exported 36% of all our citrus to the EU. That shows what an important market it is for our growers. It is the very foundation of citrus profitability in SA.”

Faten Aggad, the executive director at the African Future Policies Hub, told the Mail & Guardian:  “it is not justified but there is a continuity in the behaviour of the EU. The challenge with the EU’s international trade behaviour has always been its unilateral action not to tackle real issues but to protect its domestic industries — in this case to respond to the citrus industry pressure in Southern Europe which by their own admission is less and less competitive.  

“As the European Commission and individual European countries are increasingly under pressure from the agriculture lobby, these measures are not surprising.” 

Aggad believes that the new regulations go against the principles of fair trade and do not make for an equal partnership between South Africa and the EU. She said the matter was with the World Trade Organisation and that the WTO may take some time to come to a conclusion.

This means the problem will not be resolved as swiftly as South Africa would have hoped.