Strict new EU rules on citrus imports remained valid, but a new arrangement will be implemented to release part of the South African citrus currently stranded in European ports, News 24h reported on August 11.
Last weekend, South Africa's Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) and the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition consulted with the EU and urged EU to re-issue phytosanitary certificates for compliant containers so they could be released. Deon Joubert, special envoy for EU market access at the Citrus Growers Association of South Africa (CGA), said the organisation was in daily contact with DALRRD to ensure that containers stranded at EU ports should be urgently released. The CGA's initial estimate is that the new EU regulations will affect 1,350 containers, of which 820 will be issued with new phytosanitary certificates.

It is estimated that the citrus stranded at the port has cost South African citrus growers more than 200 million South African Rands so far. Joubert believes that the arrangement brokered by the South African government does not address the large ongoing threat to the citrus industry posed by the prolonged implementation of the new regulations.

http://za.mofcom.gov.cn/article/jmxw/202208/20220803340100.shtml