Citrus-eating pest advances in Spain and Portugal; the EU has no containment plans

Brussels -It is making its way, little by little, at an increasing pace. First in Spain, then in Portugal. It comes from South Africa and strikes citrus trees by reducing blossoming, ripening, and healthy products. It’s a pest called ‘Scirtothrips aurantii,’ or citrus thrips, first detected in 2020, but it is now beginning to raise concerns for its ongoing spread that is feared to become widespread. The European Union, for the time being, is not equipped.

“At the moment, there is no project related to Scirtothrips aurantii,” admits Health and Food Safety Commissioner Stella Kyriakides, called to account for a problem felt in the European Parliament as increasingly urgent. “The Commission invests in plant health research and innovation, with €189 million allocated over the past four years through Horizon Europe,” the European research program, but not a penny has been allocated to the citrus tripod, Kyriakides continues.

 The circumscribed nature of the South African pest underlies the choices made at the EU level, with the Commission, for now, merely supporting Spain and Portugal in measures to eradicate infected plants. It is an effective strategy to stop the spread of the citrus-eating pest, but with inevitable repercussions on the production of Iberian oranges and lemons, given the reduction of fruit trees and lower production. Moreover, the strategy of eradicating infected plants is standard practice, as demonstrated in the case of Italy and its Xylella-infested olive trees in Puglia. 

The Commission is monitoring the situation. It stands by and calls to fight citrus thrips by destroying infected plants. Not least because, Kyriakides points out, “when eradication is no longer possible, Member States require containment measures, which should be adopted through an implementing regulation.” However, “to date, the Commission has not received such a request from Spain or Portugal.”