Currently, urgent steps are being taken to end the disruption of citrus supplies from South Africa to the EU. Around 1,400 containers are involved with the EU’s decision to seize containers on arrival after the new regulations that came into effect on 14 July.

The South African government and their citrus industry have said that around 900 containers of oranges stranded in European ports should be cleared quickly. The containers are being held because of new EU entry regulations, but South Africa has said that they already comply with the new standards.

The government and citrus industry have maintained that the implementation of the new regulations within three days of their announcement on 21 June, and the expectation that South Africa should immediately comply, was totally unreasonable.

“This crisis is entirely of EU making and is at best a malicious action by an EU official or officials who want to do as much damage as possible to the South African industry,” stated a senior citrus leader.

Citrus Growers Association Chief Executive Justin Chadwick, in reacting to South Africa’s decision to refer the dispute with the EU to the WTO, has stated:

“We simply cannot allow what was clearly nothing more than a politically motivated move by the Spanish to decimate the businesses of thousands of local growers and the livelihoods they support, while threatening the destruction of millions of cartons of top-quality fruit by EU authorities,” he said.

Observers have noted that action at the WTO would take time and would not help to resolve the immediate crisis. “We now have to minimise our losses and every day the matter drags on, the worst it becomes.”

We hear directly from Justin Chadwick to gain a full understanding of the situation and the potential solutions.