The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) issued Notice 1301 of 09 October 2019 on the APPLICATION FOR MARKET ACCESS PERMITS FOR

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS INTERMS OF THE W.T.O AGREEMENT FOR 2020.

The Notice pertains to market access permits that will be issued for the products specified in the Table 1 of Import Arrangements and under the conditions set out in the Schedule. Permits will be issued only to importers in South Africa for importation into the Republic for the quantities and at the reduced levels of duty as specified in Table 1.

The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) issued a Notice on 27 May 2016 to regulate quality inspections on imported products:

The regulation requires that:

(a) each consignment of the regulated agricultural products imported for sale in the Republic of South Africa from the ports of entry specified has been inspected, graded, sampled for quality control

(b) there is written permission for the removal of a particular quantity of such product has been granted by the Executive Officer

(c) an application for the removal of a consignment of imported regulated agricultural products from  a port of entry in terms of sections 4A(1)(b) and (2) of the Act

The proposed regulations will be promulgated under the Agricultural Product Standards Act (ACT 119 of 1990) and applies to all products for human consumption and intended for sale in South Africa, both locally produced and imported.  Imported products will be subject to international treaties and commitments protecting geographical indications and designations of origin.

Following the prohibition, DALRRD proceeded to appoint various assignees to execute the inspections on the various product types.  PROKON has been appointed as the assignee that will be responsible for quality inspections on imported and locally produced fresh produce intended for sale on the local market. Notice 1 of 2017 contains the inspection fees imposed by the Act for specified categories of fresh produce.

Imported product will be inspected against CODEX standards.  Where no CODEX standard exists, the DALRRD local market standard will apply.

LINK TO CODEX STANDARDS:

http://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/codex-texts/all-standards/en/

LIST OF CODEX STANDARDS: 

Notice 1269 of 04 October 2019 prohibits the removal of imported product from specified ports of entry or any other place determined by the Executive Officer.

EXEMPTIONS: The prohibition notice makes provision for exemptions, please note specifically section 2 (b) ‘’Products intended for use in the manufacture of another product or for the purpose of further processing or repackaging’’, and section 2 (c) ‘’Individual products that have established a history of compliance based on the inspection frequency as determined by the Executive Officer’’, and section 2 (d) ‘’ Products in transit to a neighbouring country: Provided that the accompanying documentation shall clearly reflect the name of the destination country’’

On 04 October 2019 DALRRD issued an amendment Notice to specify the ports of entry