The interprofessional recognizes the excellent work done by the Ministry of Agriculture, appreciates the express support of the President of the Valencian Government and considers this a fundamental milestone for the defense of plant health in Spanish and European agriculture.
Intercitrus has learned of the approval given by the Standing Committee on Plant Health of the European Union (SCoPAFF) of a forthcoming regulatory change that will impose cold treatment in transit for all orange imports into Europe from countries suffering from the so-called false coddling moth. The formal vote on the change is scheduled to take place at an extraordinary SCoPAFF meeting next Monday. The measure does not affect mandarins or grapefruit, which can carry the Thaumatotibia leucotreta, or the oranges from Israel, where this pest is also present, as in both cases the risk of transmission is considered to be low. The interprofessional considers the step taken a fundamental milestone for Spanish and European citriculture. “The EU will protect its continental agriculture in the best way against the possible entry of this serious pest. The EU will thus largely align itself with the way of proceeding of other major producing powers, such as the U.S., China, Korea, India, Australia or Japan, which have long demanded this treatment.”
Moreover, it wished to acknowledge the “excellent technical and political work carried out in recent months by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, which first managed to win the support of the European Commission and then has achieved the necessary support to obtain the majority needed for the measure to go ahead. In the same line, Intercitrus is grateful for the support of other Spanish administrations, especially the Valencian Government, its president, Ximo Puig, and its Councillor of Agriculture, Mireia Mollà, who at the time went to Brussels hand in hand with representatives of the sector.
The T. leucotreta is in the EU’s top 20 of plant diseases and is considered a priority when it comes to regulations given its great economic, environmental and social impact. It is a highly polyphagous pest, which causes serious damage to a multitude of crops, since it is considered that there are more than 70 host plants (not only citrus, but also mango, nectarine, grape, persimmon, pomegranate, corn or cotton…). As its larvae develop by feeding inside the fruit, it is very difficult to detect. Even before it was declared quarantine pest in 2018 and even more so later, when its control at Border Inspection Posts became mandatory, it has been systematically detected in countless port controls in citrus imports from third countries. In that year, moreover, this pathogen was detected in a German greenhouse and had been spotted occasionally in Denmark, Spain, Finland, Holland, Italy, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Should this insect become established in European citrus growing areas, its eradication would be difficult due to the lack of authorized insecticides.
“This is the success of a sector that has once again demonstrated to be capable of working united in this interprofessional, which I believe that, with this achievement, has already demonstrated to be active and useful,” concludes the president of Intercitrus, Inmaculada Sanfeliu.
