The Citrus Growers Association of South Africa has requested Trade and Industry Minister Ebrahim Patel to urgently convene a panel of the World Trade Organisation regarding restrictive and expensive measures imposed by the European Union to export oranges.
The European Union insists that South Africa must cool and store its oranges for 20 days before exports. This requirement is because of the False Codling Moth. However, the additional measure of cooling and storing, which is not ideal for oranges, will add over R1 billion into costs to be able to export to the EU.
“The principal rule for the WTO is that the measure can’t be more serious or the impact much higher than the pest, so it has to be proportionate. Now South Africa has always maintained that the FCM has never been established in the EU, South Africa is by far if you can call it the least of the defaulters so we’re not really a big problem.