The USDA is proposing to allow, under certain conditions, fresh Peruvian papaya imports into the US, according to a document issued by the agency’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).
To provide protection against the introduction of quarantine pests into the US, the fruit would have to be grown in approved production areas, and undergo field sanitation as well as hot water treatment, procedures for packing and shipping, and fruit fly trapping in production areas.
USDA-APHIS said the proposed systems approach has been used successfully to mitigate the risk associated with papaya imports from Central America, Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador.
In its pest risk assessment, USDA-APHIS identified two “high risk” pests of quarantine significance that are present in Peru and could be introduced into the US through papaya imports: Mediterranean fruit fly (Medfly) and South American fruit fly.
“APHIS has determined that measures beyond standard port of arrival inspection are required to mitigate the risks posed by the plant pests associated with papayas from Peru. Therefore, we propose to require that the papayas be subjected to a systems approach to pest mitigation,” the agency said in its statement.
This systems approach would require the papayas be produced at places of production registered with Peru’s national plant protection organisation (NPPO), and would require packing procedures designed to exclude quarantine pests, as well as fruit fly trapping, field sanitation, and hot water treatment to remove pests of concern from the pathway.
APHIS added that only commercial consignments of the Solo papaya variety (papayas weighing 2kg or less) would be allowed to be imported from Peru.
Consignments of papayas from Peru would also be required to be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate issued by the NPPO of Peru stating that the papayas were grown, packed, and shipped in accordance with the proposed requirements.
USDA-APHIS said it would consider all comments that received on or before 8 October 2013.
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