Late last year, the European Union put a ban on citrus fruit coming from South Africa, after the discovery of black spot fungus, a CCTV Africa video report said. Earning $400 million from the European market, South Africa’s agriculture department says such bans are no longer necessary as the disease is not harmful to consumers.

“We are following these events very closely; we’re very concerned about it,” Wouter Kriel of the Western Cape Department of Agriculture told CCTV Africa. “The citrus industry is a major export generating industry for us and it employs a significant number of people — and it generates a substantial amount of foreign income for the province.”

Instead of experiencing a decline on behalf of hype surrounding the citrus skin disease, Kriel added that the South Africa’s ultimate hope is that their EU citrus market expands.