South Africa is appealing to China to adopt a new import protocol for its citrus shipments that doesn’t depend on cold sterilisation – the current practice – which the industry claims is damaging to trade and fruit quality.
“South Africa has recently approached China to consider a systems approach that will effectively control the perceived risk imports of South African citrus pose to China,” Justin Chadwick, CEO of the Citrus Growers’ Association, told Fruitnet.com.
“It is hoped that this will lead to the reduction of dependence of cold sterilisation programmes.”
Chadwick said a new system would involve the application of a range of compliance measures that growers will have to subscribe to, and which will be backed by inspections at the port of departure or on arrival.
“If this could be negotiated with China, there is no reason why similar systems cannot be used for our other sterri markets, such as South Korea and the US,” he said.
