Diseases, adverse weather, and climate change: the industry’s everlasting efforts to adjust 

Climate change, sustainability, and adverse weather have been on everyone’s minds throughout the year, primarily through the agriculture lens. With the effects of climate change on crops, the spread and emergence of new diseases, and the overwhelming spread of pests, the industry has had to adjust and forge a new path paved with sustainable solutions to address this year’s and the following unforeseen issues. Diseases and fruit fliesThe banana and plantain industry has been constantly fighting the black pod disease and Fusarium TR4, both serious diseases that affect bananas and cacao. TR4 poses a significant threat to the industry. Originally from Asia and rapidly spreading, the disease has already been detected in three Latin American countries: Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela.The industry is taking the impact of the disease seriously. This year, Peru’s National Agricultural Health Service SENASA alongside INIA and other sector agencies, worked in conjunction to contain Fusarium TR4, which has been present in the Piura region since 2021, and Japan joined the Philippines in the process of developing a plan to eliminate the diseases. Fusarium TR4 has become a significant threat to the industry, to the extent that The Global Alliance unified its efforts to fight against the disease, committed to halting its advance in the face of a major threat to the survival of bananas and plantains. On the other hand, South African farmers continued their fight against Europe’s citrus black spot regulations imposed by the EU two years ago. According to the Citrus Growers Association of South Africa (CGA), the required enhanced cold treatment measure for South African citrus exports, put in place due to concerns over False Codling Moth, cut South Africa’s orange exports to Europe by 20% this year. In response, South Africa launched the second World Trade Organization dispute against the citrus regulations, and Spain responded with contempt, standing in support of the rules. In July, the EU seized 11 shipments of South African citrus due to detections of Phyllosticta citricarpa, the fungus responsible for citrus black spot, and the false codling moth. After months of back and forth, Spain has continued to push for the citrus ban, with The Valencian Association of Farmers (AVA-ASAJA) reporting they’ve found eight cases of black spot in South African citrus shipments bound for the European Union in September.In an interview with the CEO of the South African Citrus Growers Association, Justin Chadwick said the South African government had advanced the trade dispute regarding the European Union’s requirements to the panel stage at the World Trade Organization and that the EU trade measures on CBS are not founded in science. Huanglongbing, HLB, caused by Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus, better known as citrus greening, has also been an issue for the industry in several leading citrus-producing countries. This May, South Africa’s Citrus Research Interna