(Bloomberg) — South Africa has taken a first step toward filing a complaint with the World Trade Organization against the European Union over its treatment of citrus purchases from the country.
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The African country has requested talks with the EU at the WTO in an effort to resolve the dispute, the country’s trade and agriculture departments said in a statement on Monday.
“We believe that the EU’s measures are not justified, proportionate or appropriate,” Ebrahim Patel, South Africa’s trade minister, said in the statement.
Two years ago, the EU imposed requirements including extra cooling of incoming fruit from South Africa, the world’s largest exporter of fruit after Spain, to combat the incidence of Citrus Black Spot, a fungal disease that leaves dark spots on fruit. South African producers must also prove costly spraying of the trees to contain the disease, and undergo inspections at orchards and warehouses.
According to the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa, South Africa will have shipped $644 million worth of citrus fruits, such as oranges, lemons, grapefruit and mandarins, to the EU in 2023.
The EU action increased costs for South Africa, which insists that while Citrus Black Spot causes spots on the fruit skin, it does not affect quality and cannot be transferred to other plants at this stage. It is also said that some shipments to Europe have been wrongly classified as infected with the disease.
The Citrus Growers Association of Southern Africa said last year the measures would cost the industry more than 500 million rand ($26 million) in lost exports because enough specialized refrigerated containers were not available in time to get the fruit to the European market.
“The industry cannot afford the almost 2 billion rand required to comply with the EU’s trade-restrictive regulations,” said Thoko Didiza, South Africa’s agriculture minister.
The EU mission to South Africa acknowledged requests for comment but has not yet responded. Before South Africa issued this statement, the WTO said it was yet to be notified.
In total, South Africa exported around $2.5 billion in agricultural products to the EU last year, and a total of $13.2 billion to the rest of the world. A third of citrus exports go to the EU.
The sector has the potential to expand, earning an additional R20 billion in exports per year and creating 100,000 additional jobs, Justin Chadwick, the CEO of the Citrus Growers Association, said in the statement. That won’t happen if EU restrictions are maintained, he said.
–With help from Jorge Valero.
(Updates with comments from the minister in third paragraph)
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