Subject: Commission inspections in Argentina and South Africa on the use of banned pesticides on citrus fruit
The EU’s legislation governing pesticide residues in imported food ensures that the same safety standards apply to all produce, whether grown in the EU or imported from non-EU countries.
Through DG Health and Food Safety’s audit programme for 2021, the Commission plans to check that the legislation of various non-EU countries complies with EU legislation and that their control systems are capable of ensuring that consignments of food exported to the EU meet either the EU’s own plant health requirements or requirements that are recognised as being equivalent to the EU’s own.
We know that these inspections on citrus fruit at source have already been carried out in Argentina and South Africa.
1. Can the Commission confirm that citrus fruit inspections in South Africa and Argentina have now finished or does it plan additional ones between now and the end of 2021?
2. What are the provisional findings of the citrus fruit inspections, for both oranges and lemons, in South Africa and Argentina, and what is the situation regarding their pesticide control systems?
3. How might these findings affect the trade agreement with South Africa, due for re-assessment in October 2021, and the trade agreement with Mercosur?
Answer given by Ms Kyriakides on behalf of the European Commission
(28 May 2021)
1-2. The Commission's work programme for Health and food audits and analysis for 2021 (1) includes audits to Argentina and South Africa covering citrus fruits. These audits cover the phytosanitary conditions under which these fruits are exported to the EU. They do not include an evaluation of pesticide controls, or controls on pesticide residues. The Commission is not currently planning audits on pesticide controls for either South Africa or Argentina, but such audits were last carried out in 2014 and 2016, respectively.
The health and food audit of Argentina took place from 8 to 19 February 2021. It evaluated the system of official plant health controls and the certification of citrus fruits for export to the EU. The report is currently being finalised and will be sent to the European Parliament and published on the Commission’s website (2) in due course.
The Commission postponed a planned audit of South Africa to evaluate the export plant health controls for citrus fruits in order for the audit to take into account an ongoing assessment by the European Food Safety Authority of the effectiveness of South Africa’s systems approach for Thaumatotibia leucotreta in citrus fruits.
3. Audits assess whether exporting countries fulfil EU import conditions. EU trade agreements do not change the phytosanitary import requirements. Consequently, all products imported into the EU must meet EU phytosanitary import requirements, irrespective of whether there is a trade agreement between the EU and the country of origin or not.
⋅1∙ https://ec.europa.eu/food/audits_analysis/audit_programmes_en
⋅2∙ https://ec.europa.eu/food/audits-analysis/audit_reports/index.cfm