- Spain made its first shipment of clementines with cold treatment to the US in 1979, and nowadays, it’s an internationally standardized process with full guarantees, already required by the US, Japan, China, India, and others to “cleanse” certain pests in imports.
- In response to the Commission’s doubts, Italy, France, Portugal, and Spain defended the measure in the Phytosanitary Committee. The Netherlands expressed support for maintaining South Africa’s “systems approach” and for continuing to collaborate with the country to improve the fight against Thaumatotibia leucotreta.
- The False Codling Moth is extremely polyphagous and threatens numerous crops because its larvae feed not only on mandarins and oranges but also on grapes, some stone fruits, olives, persimmons, pomegranates, bananas, and even attacks forest species like oak.
Intercitrus wants to make clear, “in the face of the apparent ignorance shown by the European Commission (EC) during the last Phytosanitary Committee (on November 18 and 19), that the imposition of cold treatment to guarantee the absence of certain pests, such as the false moth or Thaumatotibia leucotreta (FCM) is non-negotiable insofar as it is a fully guaranteed measure that is commonly used in the international fruit trade.
In fact, Spain -following the instructions of the US authorities- applied its first cold treatment in 1979 to export clementines to that country and thus ensure the absence of ‘Mediterranean fruit fly’. ” It is a standardized system that is internationally recognized, so much so that currently 19 states (USA, China, Japan, Australia, India, South Korea…) demand it for imports of 90 products of 11 genres. These crops include, in addition to mandarins and oranges, apples, table grapes, persimmons, cherries, etc. South Africa does agree to export citrus and some of these other crops to these countries with cold treatment during transit. This fact was stated by the representative of the Ministry of Agriculture before the aforementioned committee and subsequently reiterated by the president of Intercitrus, Inmaculada Sanfeliu, in the meeting held with other members of the sector, the Valencian Government, and the general director of Health and Safety Food of the EC, Sandra Gallina, on November 24.
The estimated cost of applying this system against FCM in South African orange and mandarin exports to Europe would stand between € 0.03 and € 0.04/kg. “It is an affordable cost. Spanish exporters pay this amount, as well as many other extra costs derived from protocols much more demanding than European standards, to reach the majority of large third markets that also have citrus fruits and want to protect them against foreign pests,” Sanfeliu stated. “We don’t choose it, they don’t offer alternatives as the EU does, the cold treatment is something they require of us, and we have to implement,” he clarifies.
“The record numbers of South African citrus shipments headed to the EU intercepted with FCM and black spot have opened a debate between the member countries. The representative of the Ministry of Agriculture of Spain strongly defended the application of cold treatment in transit for exports to the EU from the southern country. He was backed up by Portugal, France, and Italy. Meanwhile, the Netherlands was in favour of maintaining the current systems approach and working with the South African sector to improve it. The Commission continued to have doubts in this regard and called on to continue studying the matter in a new session of the Permanent Phytosanitary Committee probably this month. “The ‘systems approach’ applied by South Africa is a set of non-binding and unrelated measures, which has already demonstrated its failure and which the EU itself raises as an alternative to cold treatment, which is the only effective system to comply with the European regulations themselves, which require the total absence of the pest,” Sanfeliu clarifies in this regard. This was first demonstrated by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in a recent report on the ‘systems approach’ applied by South Africa to the FCM and was also clarified by a representative of this entity, who appeared before the Committee in October and also advocated cold treatment as the only way to ensure the plant health of fruit not only in South Africa, but in all countries suffering from this pest.
The consolidation of a ‘front’ of European horticultural countries in favour of this system is also due to the highly polyphagous nature of Thaumatotibia leucotreta. It is a pest already adapted to the Mediterranean climate – as evidenced by its presence in Israel – which can be found on up to 70 hosts, whose larvae feed on grapevines, some stone fruits (peach, apricot, plum), persimmon, pomegranate, loquat, banana, olives, blueberries, avocado…. But it could also attack other species in central and northern Europe, as it affects forest species such as oak, maize and all kinds of ornamental plants.
Intercitrus stated it trusts the debate will remain strictly technical and that other geopolitical factors, such as the interests of certain Central European lobbies, will not contaminate the matter. In this regard, the interprofessional regretted that the EC echoed the letter of three associations of importers of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany, which repeated -almost word for word- the arguments that the Citrus Growers Association of Southern Africa put forward against the imposition of cold treatment a few days before the meeting of the Phytosanitary Committee.
