Sanitary control of oranges from South Africa is already a reality. ANDl Official Gazette of the European Union (DOUE) collects today the modification of the Execution Regulation (EU) 2022/929 of the Commission of June 16, by virtue of which new entry requirements are introduced for oranges from countries where the Thaumatotibia leucotreta (‘False moth’). It is basically the cold treatment (cold treatment) that Intercitrus had been claiming to comply with current community legislation -which requires the absence of pests- and which, after decisive last-minute steps taken by the Government of Spain, ended up being approved in an extraordinary session held on May 25 by the Permanent Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (SCoPAFF)
The interprofessional applauds the decision and now thanks the Community Executive for having complied with the commitments made that day by urgently processing such modifications so that they could be sanctioned before the end of this month. Specifically, the DOUE establishes that the new requirement will enter into force “three days after its publication”. This means in practice that youAll imports departing from the affected countries from next Friday, June 24, must have the new phytosanitary certificate indicating that their oranges have been produced in an authorized place (previously communicated to the Commission) as well as proving that they have complied with the temperature now established in this regulation, both in the pre-cooling phase (precooling) as in the cold treatment itself. Oranges from areas with this pest that, on the contrary, are exported before that date -June 24- will be exempt from such requirements if they arrive in Europe and are actually imported before July 14.
Intercitrus, in the words of its president, Inmaculada Sanfeliu, wants to reiterate her “satisfaction” for the “historic milestone formally consummated today, great news for Spanish citriculture but also an important precedent in favor of plant health for all European agricultural productions.” In the same way, the interprofessional recalls that none of this would have been possible without the “excellent technical work” carried out during the months prior to the aforementioned SCoPAFF decision by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture and without the “political steps” that during those last days developed by the minister himself, Luis Planas. Actions that, in turn, were backed by the Valencian Government, personally by its president, Ximo Puig and by the minister of the branch, Mireia Mollà and that have come to fruition thanks also to the unity of action of the sector as a whole integrated in this interprofessional.
How he insistently defended himself for monthsthe application of the cold treatment was a strictly technical issue, unavoidable to comply with European legislation on plant health. This is, in fact, the DOUE when it recognizes that the new requirements are based “on the scientific information of the risk analysis related to the pest carried out by the European and Mediterranean Organization for the Protection of Plants (EPPO for its acronym in English). ) and in the commodity risk assessments carried out by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in relation to oranges imported from South Africa and Israel, in the relevant scientific literature and in the observations made by third countries following a consultation in the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
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The decision of the SCoPAFF implies a transitory regime for this campaign and a double alternative of cold treatment from the following season. In this document -as stated in today’s DOUE- the European Commission will require the countries where the False moth –which in orange are fundamentally South Africa and Zimbabwe- a precooling (precooling) at 5 degrees at origin (in the same port of departure) and a treatment in transit (during the voyage on the ship) at between -1 and 2 degrees for 25 days. And, according to what was advanced then, by 2023 it will be allowed to choose between two options: a cold treatment between -1 and 0 degrees for 16 days or another between -1 and 2 degrees for 20 days. In both cases, following the usual ways of doing things in this field, the operators would be demanded a precooling at 0 degrees and 2 degrees, respectively. Among many other technical requirements, this proposal – as is also reiterated in the DOUE – imposes control by means of sensors of the aforementioned temperature records, which must be available and that a percentage of the consignments be sampled and inspected.
The cold treatment that has been published is not the internationally standardized and implemented, among others, by the authorities of the USA, China or Japan. yese will apply only to oranges despite the fact that clementines, tangerines and grapefruit are also hosts of the ‘False moth’. Hence, Intercitrus reiterates its commitment to continue working to improve this treatment in the future and that you trust that the ‘shipment to shipment’ control will be carried out in the most rigorous way.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.