The interprofessional organisation faces a decisive year, marked by losses caused by foreign pests and the complaint filed against South Africa to the WTO over its regulations on ‘False Codling Moth’ and ‘Citrus Black Spot’.
The interprofessional organisation faces a decisive year, marked by losses caused by foreign pests and the complaint filed against South Africa to the WTO over its regulations on ‘False Codling Moth’ and ‘Citrus Black Spot’.
The Ordinary General Assembly of Intercitrus, held today, has elected Celestino Recatalá as its new president, who takes over the leadership of the organisation on behalf of the College of Agrarian Organisations. Recatalá replaces Inmaculada Sanfeliu, who took on this responsibility in July 2023, representing the College of Producers’ Organisations affiliated with Private Trade (the Citrus Management Committee, CGC). “We will work to strengthen everything that unites us, which is much more significant than what has divided us until now,” Recatalá remarked shortly after taking office. He went on to specify: “This organisation is destined to lead the defence of the future of Spanish and European citrus farming, which depends on ensuring plant health and stopping the entry of foreign pests into our fields. We’ve already suffered with the ‘South African Mealybug’, and now we are again enduring the millions in losses caused by the ‘South African Thrips’. This has to stop, especially knowing that the most devastating disease, HLB – which is incurable and present in all citrus-growing areas except the Mediterranean – threatens our survival, and we already have in EU territory the vector that best spreads it.”
The members of the interprofessional organisation finalised the terms of their work plan for the upcoming season this morning, which they intend to present to the Ministry of Agriculture. Indeed, on 12 September, a delegation from Intercitrus will meet with the Deputy Director-General of Food Chain Competitiveness, Clemente Mata, with this goal in mind. Key issues to be raised with the department of Luis Planas include the lack of reciprocity in Spanish citrus production compared to foreign imports, particularly regarding the use of pesticides banned here for environmental or public health reasons; the gradual loss of competitiveness that this entails in EU markets, exacerbated by disparities in social, wage, environmental, and production costs; and the need to strengthen control mechanisms to prevent the entry of fruit treated with such substances or new pathogens and quarantine diseases. The data supports these concerns. On one hand, since the beginning of this century, 16 previously unknown citrus pests and diseases have been identified in Spain (compared to 9 confirmed between 1968 and 1999). On the other hand, between January and July 2024, citrus from Egypt set a new record for food safety alerts for exceeding pesticide residue limits or detecting traces of substances already banned in the EU (up to 43 alerts, compared to 28 for all of 2023), while Turkey, with 45 alerts, was on track by July to surpass its own maximum from the previous year (67).
Recatalá’s new mandate at the helm of Intercitrus also comes at a particularly delicate moment for European citrus farming due to the case opened within the World Trade Organization (WTO) by South Africa. Indeed, the authorities of the southern nation have taken an unprecedented step by now challenging EU regulations within the WTO to prevent possible infections in European plantations of Thaumatotibia leucotreta (False Codling Moth) and Phyllosticta citricarpa (Citrus Black Spot). “On one hand, Intercitrus must act as a lobby in Brussels, this time to support and defend the achievements that the interprofessional organisation itself promoted, such as the cold treatment, which is even more lenient than what other importing powers like the US, China, South Korea, Japan, etc. demand to prevent False Codling Moth. On the other hand, we must show that it is hardly possible to relax regulations on imports to prevent Citrus Black Spot when, in this very season, we’ve already seen the same proportion of rejections due to this dangerous fungus as last year when South Africa broke its own record,” Recatalá noted. Moreover, according to the new leader of the interprofessional organisation, “we must go further and demand not only the maintenance of measures to prevent Citrus Black Spot infections but also their reinforcement. In the case of the other pest, we should extend the cold treatment to the rest of the fruits that can host it, such as mandarins and grapefruits.”
The work plan of the interprofessional organisation also includes analysing the possibilities and advisability of resuming promotions to encourage the purchase of oranges and mandarins within the EU.
