The European Commission's proposed revision of Directive 2009/128/EC on the sustainable use of plant protection products was published on June 22. This proposal, which is still on the table today, would amend the current directive (the most restrictive in the world) and turn it into a regulation. It is no trivial change, since a directive entails imposing an end result, but not the means to achieve it, and a regulation is directly applicable as a whole.
The new regulation is one of the key instruments for the implementation of the European Green Pact for 2030. When it comes to plant protection products, this strategy calls for a 50% reduction in their use by that date. To achieve this, the proposal now calls for a ban on the application of these products in all so-called 'sensitive' areas. The Citrus Management Committee (CGC) warns that, if enforced in this way, "the impact would be massive and unbearable, as pests would shortly get out of control and such restrictions would lead to a mass abandonment of fields, especially in the Region of Valencia."
As recently denounced by AVA-ASAJA based on official estimates drawn by the Business Association for the Protection of Plants (AEPLA), "30% of the country's agricultural area would be affected, but in the specific case of citrus, the impact would be much greater, given the amount of mandarin and orange plantations in these lands."
"The decline in the production in these areas would be extreme in the case of the Region of Valencia, and very considerable in other producing areas, such as Andalusia, Murcia and the area near the mouth of the Ebro in Tarragona."
The CGC is not opposed to "continuing to take steps towards a more sustainable citrus production;" however, to continue moving in this direction, "the sector first needs effective biological alternatives to conventional insecticides, herbicides or fungicides, as well as efficient procedures to obtain them."
"The ban of chlorpyrifos and methyl chlorpyrifos has served to show that the biological control strategy is still severely limited. Today we continue to lose millions due to new pests -such as the cotonet from South Africa- or others that we had so far managed to keep at bay -such as the red spider mite-. And meanwhile, huge amounts of residues of this pesticide continue to be detected in European imports of oranges and mandarins from third countries," denounces the CGC.
Hence the CGC, in line with what has been expressed by the entire Spanish fruit and vegetable sector, reiterated that changes in this area must be accompanied by measures to ensure compliance with the principle of reciprocity.
