. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/GEN/752 
21 February 2007 
 
 (07-0707) 
Committee on Sanitary and  
Phytosanitary Measures Original:   Spanish 
 
  
PANAMA:  CERTIFICATION AND/OR DECLARATION OF AN  
AREA FREE OF MEDITERRANEAN FRUIT FLY IN  
THE AZUERO PENINSULA 
 
Communication from Panama
 
 
  The following communication, received on 14 Fe bruary 2007, is being circulated at the 
request of the delegation of Panama. 
 
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 1. Panama produces a wide variety of fruits, tha nks to its agro-clima tic conditions.  Those 
conditions also favour the spread of various p ests, particularly the Mediterranean fruit fly "" Ceratitis 
capitata" .  As a result, a national programme has been developed that gives priority to certifying the 
Azuero peninsula as an area free of the Mediterranean fruit fly. 
2. The Mediterranean fruit fly was detected in Panama in  1963.  In the 1990s, incentives for 
exports to new markets and the expansion of produ ction areas, particularly for citrus fruit, mango, 
papaya and chilli pepper, lead the Government to increase its resources and activities and to take a 
greater interest in controlling or eradicating this p est.  However, the shortage of resources and the lack 
of integrated action at regional level hampered  the long-term programmes and regional cooperation 
that are necessary for pest eradication.   
3. The quarantine on exports of fruit from countries in fested with Mediterranean fruit fly curbed 
exports to international markets.  Moreover, this pest was responsible for significant direct economic 
losses caused by damage to various types of fruit, and it substantially reduced the volume of products 
that could be sold locally.  The high cost of maintaining surveillance activities and other 
precautionary practices, including country-wide pestic ide application, drove up the cost of production, 
and severe economic loss was caused by the lack of export markets. 
4. The newly introduced international obligation on C ontracting Parties to the International Plant 
Protection Convention (IPPC) of  1997, requiring them to provide for the recognition of pest-free 
areas and areas of low pest prevalence as accep table phytosanitary measures has created new 
commercial opportunities among the countries concerned.   
5. The concept of pest-free production areas, localitie s and sites enables countries infested with 
any pest subject to particular regulations to pr oduce and export fruit, provided that compliance with 
the requirements pertaining to pest-free areas and areas of low pest prevalence can be fulfilled, 
demonstrated and maintained. 
6. In this connection, Panama has since 2005 been  working on a project for the "Declaration of 
the Azuero Peninsula as Free of Mediterranean Fru it Fly", the purpose of which is to establish a G/SPS/GEN/752 
Page 2  
 
  Mediterranean fruit fly free area, so as to increase th e volume of exports to international markets and 
the domestic market.   
7. This plan has involved the establishment and ma intenance of permanent trapping routes, in 
order to verify the absence of Me diterranean fruit fly and to check th e demography of other fruit flies 
of the genus Anastrepha , of economic significance to Panama.  
8. The programme has been supplemented by trai ning and information courses for technical 
experts and national producers on the new methodol ogies for the management and control of fruit 
flies. 
9. In 2006, a total of 468 traps were installed unde r the programme on 282 sentinel farms in the 
Azuero peninsula. 
10. Tests were conducted on 6,030 samples from trap s installed in the field, and these were 
reviewed by the laboratory of the Ministry of  Agricultural Development between January and 
December 2006, resulting in a total of 20,032 phyto sanitary diagnoses of fruit fly.  The clinical 
diagnosis reported no captures of Ceratitis capitata and the oriental fruit fly (Bactrocera spp., which 
includes  Bactrocera dorsalis  and Bactrocera carambolae) . 
11. Captures were restricted to nine species of the genus Anastrepha , the great majority of which, 
or 97 per cent of the total, were mango or West Indian fruit flies, Anastrepha obliqua .  Other species 
of economic significance detected in smalle r percentages were:  the guava fruit fly ( Anastrepha 
striata) , the sapotace fruit fly ( Anastrepha serpentina)  and the papaya fruit fly ( Toxotrypana 
curvicauda) . 
12. A database is operated, and it is updated and harmonized with USDA-APHIS.  Records are 
also kept for the 282 sentinel farms and 468 insta lled traps, with graphics showing captures and 
population trends in species of economic significance.  
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