The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the Nation, Luis Basterra, witnessed together with the president of Senasa, Carlos Paz, and vice president, Carlos Milicevic, the certification of the first shipment of lemons that will be exported to the Netherlands, after achieving the reopening from the citrus market to the European Union.
Basterra explained that in 2020 the European Union stopped importing Argentine citrus fruits because the previous administration had made the decision to outsource the sanitary control demanded by these products, and highlighted "the efficiency with which Senasa has worked to retake that responsibility that it is up to the State".
"Strengthening the institution made it possible for us to achieve this today, which comes from the negotiations carried out by the Ministry and Senasa teams to demonstrate to the European Union that we are guaranteeing the health of Argentine citrus products. This possibility of recover the European market, "said the minister.
Paz, for his part, highlighted the joint work with "the Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, the producing provinces and the producer entities to exchange with the European health organization the conditions to be able to return to the market this year." "We had a very thorough audit of the European Union in February, and the achievement is the result of that and of presenting all the documentation and proposals to strengthen the service," he said.
"We have reinforced with personnel, with vehicles, we made agreements with INTA, with the Obispo Colombres Agroindustrial Experimental Station, in Tucumán, so that we have the greatest possible certainty that the process is controlled. We minimize the possibility of charges with the disease black spot, which Europe considers quarantine, "he added.
The Director of Plant Protection of Senasa, Diego Quiroga, stressed that this shipment has "the new conditions of the European Union established in the reopening norm and with the phytosanitary certification in charge of Senasa".
The European Union is the main export market for our citrus fruits, with Argentina historically being the main supplier of lemons and the fourth supplier of oranges to the European Union. This reopening of the European market will benefit the regional economies of the NOA and NEA, maintaining exports that will allow foreign exchange to enter our country. ■