The South African citrus industry’s quest to quench the European Union market’s thirst for its produce unencumbered by bureaucracy remains elusive.But the EU’s emergency measures to prevent the occurrence of citrus black spot , delivered through regulations designed to restrict access, have been both a blessing and a curse.
However, South African citrus growers are still faced with those emergency CBS measures imposed by the EU and are compelled to abide. “They are regulations. We have to comply – whether we agree or not. We are complying,” explains Citrus Growers Association CEO Justin Chadwick.One unintended outcome is that the EU-imposed processes have stood the industry in good stead amid the unfolding Covid-19 crisis.
During the time when the measures were introduced around 2016, the industry was forced to strengthen unity, sharpen its stakeholder engagement and communication, and formulate a coordinated plan and response. For starters, the South African citrus industry could readily come together to articulate mitigating measures and devise a compliance plan. It did this by forming a Covid-19 committee that meets weekly on Thursday afternoons.
By now, the expectation was that the EU would have, at least, eased some of the measures as a result of rigorous compliance. To date, however, that has not been the case. To date, the South African citrus industry has not received a notification of non-compliance. Getting a notification through the respective institutional channels can take time.“I have been in contact with people in the EU and they advised it would be on the website. I’ve been looking every two to three hours – it’s still not up yet,” Chadwick revealed.