South Africa adds 7 detections of black spot in September and already accumulates 26 this year

In September, the European Union intercepted seven new detections of Phyllosticta citricarpa – the fungus that causes black spot in citrus fruits – in citrus shipments from South Africa, bringing the total number of interceptions of this quarantine pest to 26 so far this year, which if it were to be introduced into European territory would cause multimillion-dollar losses to the citrus sector. The Valencian Association of Farmers (AVA-ASAJA) demands that the community institutions “close once and for all the borders to imports of South African citrus fruits because it is a third country that does not want or cannot comply with the phytosanitary safety of its shipments to Europe and, on top of that, has the nerve and disloyalty to denounce the European control measures, against precisely pests and diseases such as black spot, before the World Trade Organisation (WTO)”. In this regard, AVA-ASAJA calls on the EU to “devote all its available resources to knocking down the panel opened ...