Unnecessary costs
"It's now important to take away the insecurity in the long term," continues Michel. "Although the measures can be carried out according to the South Africans, unnecessary costs are still being added to the chain. Of course the EU has to protect itself against undesirable dangerous organisms and South Africa will have to conform to the European regulations but the measures have to be appropriate and proportional. According to the EFSA, the European Food Safety Authority, the risk of black spot can be sufficiently managed with a well functioning system approach. South Africa is working very hard on such a system approach at the moment, an approach with which Argentina has successfully managed to prevent additional measures from the EU. I wonder whether this expensive sampling procedure is really necessary to reduce the risk of black spot to an acceptable level. I also wonder if this measure will be able to be reduced in the future, next year, to the really risky products and period, if they are even needed."
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Michel Jansen