United States Department of Agriculture

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

Plant Protection and Quarantine

Risk Management Document

Importation of Fresh Fruits of Baby Kiwi

(Actinidia arguta) from Chile into the

Continental United States

December 18, 2009

Plant Health Programs (PHP)

Regulations, Permits and Manuals (RPM)

Contact Person: Dave Lamb
Version 2 December 18, 2009 2

Introduction

The Chilean Servicio Agrícola y Ganadero (SAG), the national plant protection organization 

(NPPO) of Chile, requested to export fresh baby kiwi, Actinidia arguta (Siebold & Zucc.) 

Planch. ex Miq., to the continental United States. A first draft of the pest risk assessment (PRA) 

was prepared by SAG and the Association of Exporters of Chile (ASOEX) (Servicio Agrícola y 

Ganadero, 2004). The APHIS PRA was developed using the pest list in the SAG PRA, a search 

of the literature and APHIS pest interception records (USDA, 2008) to determine pests that 

would follow the pathway of fresh baby kiwi. The APHIS PRA identified one quarantine pest

that is likely to be introduced into the continental United States in consignments of fresh baby 

kiwi:

Brevipalpus chilensis Baker (Acari: Tenuipalpidae) Chilean false red mite

The PRA considered the likelihood and consequences of introducing this pest and indicated that 

it poses a Medium pest risk potential. Pests with medium pest risk potential may require 

measures in addition to inspection at the port of entry to mitigate risk (USDA, 2000).

Risk Management Measures

Monitoring and Oversight

The NPPO of Chile must provide a workplan to APHIS that details the activities that the NPPO 

of Chile will, subject to APHIS’ approval of the workplan, carry out to meet the requirements of 

the systems approach and specific quarantine treatments that may be required. APHIS will be 

directly involved with SAG in monitoring and auditing implementation of the systems approach

and/or any quarantine treatments. 

The NPPO of Chile must visit and inspect registered places of production monthly, starting at 

least two months before harvest and continuing until the end of the shipping season, to verify that 

the growers are complying with the requirements of the systems approach. 

In addition to conducting inspections at the packinghouses, the NPPO of Chile must monitor 

packinghouse operations to verify that the packinghouses are complying with the requirements of 

the systems approach.

 

If the NPPO of Chile finds that a place of production or packinghouse is not complying with the 

requirements of the systems approach, no fruit from the place of production or packinghouse will 

be eligible for export to the United States until APHIS and the NPPO of Chile conduct an 

investigation and appropriate remedial actions have been implemented. 

The NPPO of Chile must review and maintain all forms and documents related to export program 

activities in places of production and packinghouses for at least 1 year and, as requested, provide 

them to APHIS for review. 
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Systems approach for Brevipalpus chilensis

All of the following measures are required for the systems approach for Brevipalpus chilensis. 

Production site registration

The production site where the fruit is grown must be registered with the national plant protection 

organization (NPPO) of Chile. To register, the production site must provide Chile's NPPO with 

the following information: Grower, exporter, orchard, and production site name, region, 

township, province, locality, area planted, and approximate date of harvest. Registration must be 

renewed annually. 

The NPPO of Chile will visit and inspect the production sites monthly, starting two months 

before harvest, and continue until the end of the shipping season. The NPPO of Chile will certify 

that each place of production follows pest control guidelines, when necessary, to reduce regulated

pest populations. APHIS may monitor the places of production if necessary. 

Registration of production sites will allow trace back to the production site if pest problems are 

found on fruit shipped to the United States. Problem production sites can then be removed from 

the program until further mitigation measures have been taken to reduce pest populations.

Low prevalence production site certification

Between 1 and 30 days prior to harvest, random samples of fruit must be collected from each 

registered production site under the direction of Chile's NPPO. These samples must undergo a 

pest detection and evaluation method as follows: The fruit must be washed using a flushing 

method, placed in a 20 mesh sieve on top of a 200 mesh sieve, sprinkled with a liquid soap and 

water solution, washed with water at high pressure, and washed with water at low pressure. The 

process must then be repeated. The contents of the 200 mesh sieve must then be placed on a 

petri dish and analyzed for the presence of live Brevipalpus chilensis mites. If a single live B. 

chilensis mite is found, the production site will not qualify for certification as a low prevalence 

production site. Each production site may have only one opportunity per season to qualify as a 

low prevalence production site, and certification of low prevalence will be valid for one harvest 

season only. The NPPO of Chile will present a list of certified production sites to APHIS. 

Production site low prevalence certification will identify problem production sites and prevent 

shipment of fruit with Brevipalpus chilensis mites from these sites. This mite sampling has been 

tested in Chile and found to be successful in identifying production areas of grapes with high and 

low populations of mites (Servicio Agricola y Ganadero, 2002; 2007) and of citrus production 

areas as well.

Post-harvest processing. 
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Harvested baby kiwi must be placed in field cartons or containers that are marked to show the 

official registration number of the production site. The place of production where the baby kiwi 

were grown must remain identifiable when the fruit leaves the grove, at the packinghouse, and 

throughout the export process.

After harvest all damaged or diseased fruits must be culled at the packinghouse and the 

remaining fruit must be packed into new, clean boxes, crates or other packing materials. Fruit

must be inspected in Chile at an APHIS-approved inspection site under the direction of APHIS 

inspectors in coordination with SAG, following any post-harvest processing. 

Fruit presented for inspection must be identified in the shipping documents accompanying each 

lot of fruit to specify the production site or sites in which the fruit was produced and the packing 

shed or sheds in which the fruit was processed. This identification must be maintained until the 

fruit is released for entry into the United States.

A sample of boxes from each consignment must be selected by SAG that will detect a 6% 

infestation rate with 95% confidence based on the biometric sample. The fruit from these boxes 

must be visually inspected for quarantine pests. A portion of the fruit must be washed with 

soapy water and the collected filtrate must be microscopically examined for B. chilensis. 

Post harvest processing such as culling damaged fruit and sampling for mites will remove fruit 

that may contain pests. Culling is a standard commercial procedure to produce quality fruit 

without pests.

Phytosanitary certificate.

Each consignment of fruit must be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate issued by the 

NPPO of Chile that contains an additional declaration stating that “the fruit in the consignment 

was inspected and found free of Brevipalpus chilensis based on field and packinghouse 

inspections”.

Requiring a phytosanitary certificate ensures that the NPPO has inspected the fruit and certified 

that it meets the conditions for export to the United States.

Efficacy of Risk Management Measures

There are several measures available for mitigating the pests of concern from fresh baby kiwi

from Chile. The measures chosen for risk management on fresh baby kiwi from Chile are 

summarized in Table 1. Table 2 shows a summary of the systems approach used to mitigate for 

the mite, Brevipalpus chilensis.

Table 1. Summary of risk management requirements for baby kiwi from Chile.

Measure(s) Pests Efficacy
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Table 1. Summary of risk management requirements for baby kiwi from Chile.

Measure(s) Pests Efficacy

Monitoring and 

Oversight

Brevipalpus chilensis but 

must be used in 

conjunction with the 

systems approach.

These measures are standard for many export 

programs and assist in maintaining quality of the 

program.

Registered Places of 

Production 

Brevipalpus chilensis but 

must be used in 

conjunction with the 

systems approach.

Places of production are registered to effectively 

maintain quality control and traceback.

Traceability Brevipalpus chilensis but 

must be used in 

conjunction with the 

systems approach.

Traceback is effective at removing problem places of 

production from the systems approach.

Systems Approach Brevipalpus chilensis Measures listed have been effective in the pilot 

project eliminating B. chilensis from consignments of 

Chilean grapes (Servicio Agricola y Ganadero, 2002; 

2007).

Table 2. Summary of systems approach used for the mite Brevipalpus chilensis

Measure(s) Efficacy

Production Site Registration Registration of production sites is required on pre-clearance 

programs to manage production site requirements and control access 

to the program to only qualified sites. Commercially grown 

shipments from registered production sites use good agricultural 

practices to reduce or eliminate pests (IPPC, 2005). APHIS pest 

interception database indicates that commercial shipments are much 

less likely to have pest interceptions than non-commercial shipments 

or passenger baggage. Production site registration is part of 

traceability that allows track back to production sites if any actionable 

pests are found by inspection at the port of arrival to the United 

States. Production sites with actionable pests can be removed from 

the program.

Low prevalence production site 

certification

Between 1 and 30 days prior to harvest, random samples of fruit must 

be collected from each registered production site under the direction 

of Chile's NPPO. These samples must undergo a pest detection and 

evaluation method as follows: The fruit must be washed using a 

flushing method, placed in a 20 mesh sieve on top of a 200 mesh 

sieve, sprinkled with a liquid soap and water solution, washed with 

water at high pressure, and washed with water at low pressure. The 

process must then be repeated. The contents of the 200 mesh sieve 

must then be placed on a petri dish and analyzed for the presence of 

live Brevipalpus chilensis mites. If a single live B. chilensis mite is 

found, the production site will not qualify for certification as a low 

prevalence production site. The soapy water and rinse cause many 

of the mites to be washed from the fruit into the rinsate. Sampling 

fruit using a wash and a sieve concentrates the mites into a small 

area where they can be easily seen by a low power microscope. This 

procedure has been effectively used as part of a pilot program for 

Chilean grapes (Servicio Agricola y Ganadero, 2002; 2007).

Postharvest Processing After harvest and before packing, a sample of boxes from each 

consignment must be selected by SAG, which will detect a 6% 

infestation rate with 95% confidence based on the biometric sample. 
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The fruit from these boxes must be visually inspected for quarantine 

pests. A portion of the fruit must be washed with soapy water and the 

collected filtrate must be microscopically examined for B. chilensis. 

The soapy water and rinse cause many of the mites to be washed 

from the fruit into the rinsate. Sampling fruit using a wash and a sieve 

concentrates the mites into a small area where they can be easily 

seen by a low power microscope. This procedure has been 

effectively used as part of a pilot program for Chilean grapes (Servicio 

Agricola y Ganadero; 2002, 2007).

Phytosanitary certification Requiring a phytosanitary certificate requires the NPPO to inspect the 

fresh baby kiwis for pests.

Phytosanitary Inspection at port 

of entry

Inspections are recognized as an important part of a pest 

management program (Kahn and Mathur 1999). Trained inspectors 

can recognize infestations of mites and the damage they cause to the 

fruits which would allow detection of these pests in some cases 

(CABI, 2006; USDA, 1982; USDA, 2004; Whittle, 1986) 

Summary

APHIS concludes that shipments of baby kiwi that originate from Chile may safely be imported 

to the United States without the risk of introducing Brevipalpus chilensis using a combination of 

the mitigations listed above. Mitigation measures that would be used for baby kiwi from Chile 

have already been employed successfully as part of a pilot program for the importation of 

Chilean grapes into the United States. Any production sites where B. chilensis was detected by 

the pilot program were removed from the program. Over 1.3 million metric tons of grapes have 

been imported since 2003 under the program, and the number of pest interceptions is very small, 

with only 5 interceptions of actionable quarantine pests in that time period for Chilean grapes. 

This systems approach has also been effective for exporting Chilean citrus that are free of mites 

into the United States (USDA; 2002, 2006). 

Authors 

Walter Gould

Senior Risk Manager, RPM

5. References

CABI. 2006. Crop Protection Compendium, 2006 Edition. CAB International, Wallingford, 

UK.

IPPC. 2005. International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures. Requirements for the 

establishment of areas of low pest prevalence. ISPM 22. UN-FAO-IPPC, Italy.

Kahn, R. P. and S. B. Mathur. 1999. Containment Facilities and Safeguards. American 

Phytopathological Society, St. Paul, MN. 213 pp.
Version 2 December 18, 2009 7

Servicio Agricola y Ganadero. 2002. Chile Pre Clearance Program Low Prevalence Pilot Program 

for Brevipalpus chilensis B. in Grapes. Servicio Agricola y Ganadero, Gobierno de Chile, 

Santiago, Chile. 108 pp.

Servicio Agricola y Ganadero. 2004. Pest risk assessment for baby kiwi (Actinidia arguta) fresh 

fruits entry from Chile into the United States [DRAFT]. Chilean Servicio Agrícola y 

Ganadero (SAG), Chile. 26 pp.

Servicio Agricola y Ganadero. 2007. Chile Pre Clearance Program Low Prevalence Pilot Program 

for Brevipalpus chilensis B. in Grapes. Servicio Agricola y Ganadero, Gobierno de Chile, 

Santiago, Chile. 25 pp.

USDA. 1982. Pests Not Known to Occur in the United States or of Limited Distribution, No. 

24: Rice Cutworm. USDA, APHIS, PPQ, Hyattsville, MD. 8 pp.

USDA. 2000. Guidelines for Pathway-Initiated Pest Risk Assessments. Version 5.02. USDA, 

APHIS, PPQ. Riverdale, MD. 30 pp. 

USDA. 2002. Importation of Fresh Commercial Citrus Fruit: Clementine (Citrus reticulata

Blanco var. clementine) Mandarin (Citrus reticulata Blanco) and Tangerine (Citrus 

reticulata Blanco) from Chile into the United States. A Pathway Initiated Plant Pest Risk 

Assessment. USDA, APHIS, PPQ, Riverdale, MD. 74pp.

USDA. 2004. Agricultural Quarantine Inspection Monitoring (AQIM) Handbook. USDAAPHIS, PPQ; http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppq/manuals/port/AQIM_Chapters.htm

[accessed July 2009].

USDA. 2006. Importation of Fresh Commercial Sweet Orange (Citrus sinensis [L.] Osbeck) and 

Grapefruit (Citrus x paradisi Macfad.) fruit from Chile into the United States. A 

Pathway-Initiated Plant Pest Risk Analysis. USDA, APHIS, PPQ, CPHST, Raleigh, NC. 

61 pp.

USDA. 2008. Pest Risk Assessment for Fresh Fruits of Baby Kiwi (Actinidia arguta) from Chile 

Imported into the Continental United States. A Qualitative, Pathway-initiated Risk 

Assessment. 23 pp.

Whittle, K. 1986. Pests Not Known to Occur in the United States or of Limited Distribution No. 

74: Cabbage Moth- Mamestra brassicae L. September 1986. USDA, APHIS, PPQ. 

Hyattsville, MD. 15 pp.