• Interprofessional demands a prompt clarification from the Commission because this pest is not declared in this country and, if it had it not been intercepted in November in this port and landed in a warehouse, it would not only have threatened nearby citrus growing areas but also key crops such as vines, avocado, mango, stone fruits, peppers, cotton, roses and corn.
• Its confirmation in the Alawite kingdom would force us to rethink European policy on this ‘priority’ pest – regulated in the top 20 of those with the greatest impact – since this country is today the first non-EU supplier of fruits and vegetables in Spain and the fifth highest in the EU, which would increase the risk.
• Its detection in the neighbouring country would make it more pressing, not only to force compliance with the cold treatment in oranges from affected areas, as has been approved, but also to extend it to mandarins since Morocco, South Africa and Israel are the first third-party suppliers of the EU of this fruit and all three would suffer.

Data from the European Commission’s (EC) Europhyt-Traces register for November showed an interception of ‘False Colding Moth’ (Thaumatotibia leucotreta) in pomegranates from Morocco. As Intercitrus has been able to confirm, this rejection took place in the Port of Almeria and it was, consequently, the Spanish phytosanitary authorities themselves (dependent on the Ministry of Agriculture) that obtained the positive result and paralysed the entry of the shipment. Thanks to his intervention and professionalism, the pathogen could most probably be identified in a fruit that came from a country, such as the Alaouite kingdom, where no such pest has been declared. If the affected consignment had been entered and unloaded in a warehouse in Almería, not only the nearby production of tangerines, oranges or grapefruits would have been put at risk, but also all the fruit trees that, in addition to the pomegranate itself, are also hosts of this disease, such as avocado, vine, peach, nectarine or mango; some vegetables, such as pepper or eggplant; other continental crops such as cotton or corn and even ornamental flowers, such as roses. Given the seriousness of the detection of such a polyphagous pest, capable of attacking up to 70 plant species belonging to 50 different families and which risk analyses confirm that it could multiply in a Mediterranean climate such as that of Morocco or Spain, Intercitrus demands that the European authorities send inspectors to confirm the extent of the possible presence of T. leucotreta in Morocco.

“This interception should put the entire Spanish and European fruit and vegetable sector on alert and if the suspicion is confirmed, the EC should rethink its policy against this quarantine pest, the fight against which is regulated as a priority as it is one of the 20 with the greatest economic, environmental and social impact”, warns Inmaculada Sanfeliu, president of the Spanish Orange and Mandarin Interprofessional, in this respect.

Not surprisingly, Morocco is currently Spain’s leading non-EU supplier of fruit and vegetables, with 339,476 tonnes (t) imported from January to September this year and the fifth largest tonnage exported in this same period to the EU as a whole (with 1.04 million t., a short distance behind the other four, which are, in that order, Costa Rica and Ecuador – both with 1.3 million t., Egypt -1.1 million – and South Africa -1.09 million -). And Morocco’s growth as a fruit and vegetable supplier to Spain is exponential: in the last ten years it has more than tripled its exports to our country (from 155,000 tonnes in 2012 to 565,000 tonnes in 2022). In citrus fruits – considered one of the main entry routes for this pest, although not the only one – its evolution has been more irregular, but in recent years it has rivalled South Africa for European leadership as a non-EU supplier of mandarins, with Israel close behind: from January to November of this year Morocco exported 79,869 tonnes of small citrus fruits to the EU, compared to South Africa’s record 169,039 tonnes and 79,567 tonnes from the Hebrew country.

If the suspicions are confirmed and T.leucotreta is declared in Morocco, “the EU would find that the three main non-European suppliers of clementines and mandarins all suffer from this pest, which would oblige it – as we have been demanding from the beginning – to impose cold treatment also on mandarins from these three countries (Morocco, South Africa and Israel), not only on oranges originating from areas affected by this pest, as at present”, insists Sanfeliu. In this regard, the president of the interprofessional reiterates that, up to now and for the second consecutive season, shipments of oranges from South Africa to the EU still do not comply in a majority way with the cold treatment that the EC approved in May 2022″.

If this dangerous pest – which, as has been said, affects the entire fruit and vegetable sector – were to be introduced into Spain, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to eradicate it.

This is what the Contingency Plan drawn up by MAPA itself in 2020 warns: “Non-systemic insecticides (those that do not penetrate the plant) are not accessible to the larvae because these remain for most of their life inside the fruit and in addition the pest has developed resistance to commonly used systemic insecticides (those that do) and non-systemic insecticides”. The reduced availability of active substances permitted by the EU and the consequences of a European plant health regulation that could soon become even more restrictive would make the fight against this insect extremely difficult.

Intercitrus would like to thank the Spanish Phytosanitary services for their diligence in confirming this pest, even more so knowing that it came from a country where it is not declared. The aforementioned document from the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture also warns of the extreme difficulty of identification at the border: “As the larva of T. leucotreta feeds internally, most hosts present external symptoms that are difficult to detect and identify.  Furthermore, when carrying out inspections of fruit harvested at the time of import, recent infestations will not be detected, since once the larva has entered the fruit, it takes a few days for the symptoms to become visible and transport conditions are also not favourable. for the development of the plague.