South African Citrus Growers Association is still urging President Cyril Ramaphosa to provide an update on matters related to exporting its produce.
CGA is mounting pressure on the government on whether it intends to convene a World Trade Organisation (WTO) Panel to adjudicate the new False Coddling Moth (FCM) regulation governing the importation of South African oranges to the EU.
According to CGA, it believes the president must use his State of the Nation Address debate to respond to its concerns.
CGA’s CEO, Justin Chadwick released a statement announcing that their organisation had written to Minister of Trade, Industry, and Competition Ebrahim Patel, requesting that he urgently called for the establishment of a WTO panel on the issue.
“Ahead of his reply to the State of the Nation Debate tomorrow, the Citrus Growers Association of South Africa (CGA) calls on President (Cyril) Ramaphosa to use the opportunity to provide an urgent update on whether the South African government intends to convene a World Trade Organisation (WTO) Panel to adjudicate on the new False Coddling Moth (FCM) regulation governing the importation of South African oranges to the EU,” it said in a statement on Wednesday.
As a major economic contributor, sustaining 140 000 jobs and bringing in R30 billion in export revenue annually, CGA stated that believed that a panel was the only option to put a stop to the unjustified and discriminatory regulation..
“The CGA is grateful for the support provided by the South African government to date on this matter. We understand that there have been several engagements between South African government officials and their EU counterparts over the past few weeks, with the issue also receiving attention at a ministerial and presidential level,” added the statement.
“However, despite ample evidence having been provided that shows the new regulation to be contrary to scientific evidence, unnecessarily trade restrictive and accordingly, in contravention of international requirements for such phytosanitary trade regulations, the EU has refused to make any concessions ahead of the 2023 export season, which kicks off in March.
“The local industry faced an extremely tough season in 2022, where a surge in farming input prices and transport costs, as well as astronomical shipping price hikes, resulted in already tight margins for citrus producers being squeezed to the point where only one in five farms made a positive return. Should the new regulation be enforced in 2023, many growers and the jobs they sustain are unlikely to survive.”
IOL reports that the disgruntled association said these new requirements, where all oranges shipped to the European Union will need to be precooled to below two degrees Celsius and then maintained for 20 days – and that would have a devastating financial impact on growers.
