Union over its stringent black spot regulations.
If the EU halts SA imports due to its restrictions on citrus black spot disease, over 70 000 jobs and R15 billion in foreign earnings will be at risk.SA citrus farmers are lobbying President Cyril Ramaphosa to take on the European Union over its stringent black spot regulations after the bloc claimed it had intercepted some imported fruit bearing the disease.
Joubert said there was a pattern of"erroneous" classifications by the EU, including in Belgium and Portugal, where"CBS tests have proven to be unreliable and have resulted in false positives". South Africa is the world's second-largest citrus exporter after Spain, and the CGA claims that the EU's restriction on the import of fruit bearing CBS are"nothing more than a protectionist impulse". The EU is currently the only global market that has this position on CBS.