Regulatory Watch

APHIS announces supplemental requirements for citrus fruit from Colombia

Requirements are designed to allow the resumption of citrus imports from Colombia while protecting from plant pests

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has announced supplemental requirements governing the importation of citrus fruit from Colombia.

The supplemental requirements apply to sweet orange, grapefruit, mandarin, clementine and tangerine fruit from Colombia. The new requirements are designed to allow the resumption of these imports from Colombia while protecting from plant pests. Importation was suspended in 2016 due to the discovery of new plant pests in South America. There were 11 pests identified as potential threats, including the citrus fruit borer.

To combat these potential threats, the following new requirements are being proposed:

Importation in commercial consignments only
Production of fruit only in places of production registered and approved by the National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO)
Effective fruit fly trapping programs in the places of production
Standard packinghouse procedures.

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Casey Laughman is the former Editor in Chief of Food Engineering magazine. He has almost two decades’ experience as a writer and editor for mainstream and trade publications. He spent several years as a writer and editor for two news services before becoming the editor of a legal publication and managing editor of a trade magazine that covered the commercial facilities market.