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 ar gu ta

) from Chile into the
Continental United States

Dec ember 18 , 200 9

Plant Health Programs (PHP) Regulations, Permits and Manu als ( RPM )

Contact Person: Dave LambVersion 2 Dece m ber 18 , 2009 2



### Introduction

The Chilean Ser vicio 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 t he continental United States. A first draft of the pest risk assessment (PRA) was prepared by SAG and the Association of Exporters of Chile (ASOEX) ( Ser vicio Agrícola y Ganadero, 2004) . The APHIS PRA was developed using the pest list in the SAG PRA

, a se arch of the literature and APHIS pest interception records (USDA, 200 8 ) to determine pests that would follow the pathway of fresh baby kiwi . The APHIS PRA identified one quarantine pe st
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 th is pest and indicated that

it pose s 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 activit ies 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 SA G in monitoring and aud iting 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 se ason, 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 complyi ng 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 eligibl e 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.Version 2 Dece m ber 18 , 2009 3



### 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, star ting 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 pl aces 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 Ch ile'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 w ater 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 B revipalpus 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 p revalence 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 B re vipalpus 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 pro duction

areas as well

.

Post

- harvest processing.Version 2 Dece m ber 18 , 2009 4

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 mu st 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, c rates or other packing materials. F ruit must be inspected in Chile at an APHIS

- approved inspection site under the direction of APHIS inspectors in coordination with S AG, following any post

- harvest processing.

Fruit presented for inspection must be ident ified 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 fo r 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 a dditional 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 ce rtified 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 m anagement 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, B revipalpus chilensis

.

Table 1

. Summary of risk management requirements for baby kiwi fro m Chile

. Measure(s) Pests E fficacyVersion 2 Dece m ber 18 , 2009 5

Table 1

. Summary of risk management requirements for baby kiwi fro m Chile

. Measure(s) Pests E fficacy 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 Brev ipalpus 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 app roach. Traceback is effective at removing problem places of production from the systems approach.

Systems Approach Brevipalpus chilensis Measures listed ha ve 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 manag e production site requirements and control access to the prog r am to only qualified sites. Commercially grown shipments from registered production sites use good agricultural practices to reduce or eliminate pests ( IPPC , 200 5 ) . APHIS pest interception da tabase 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 actionabl e 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 fr uit 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 an d 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.Version 2 Dece m ber 18 , 2009 6 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 ca use 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 kiwi s for pests. Phytosanitary Inspection at port of entry Inspections are recognized as an important part of a pest management program (Kahn and Mathur 1999). T rained inspectors can recognize infestations of mites and the damage they cause to the
fruits which would allow detection of these pests in some cases (C ABI, 200 6 ; 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

t he 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. c hilensis 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 q uarantine 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).

Author s

Walter Gould Senior Risk Manager, RPM

5. References

CABI. 200 6 . Crop Protection Compendium, 200 6 Edition. CAB International, Wallingford,

UK.

IPPC . 2005. International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures. R equirements 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 Dece m ber 18 , 2009 7

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

for Brevipalp us chilensis B. in Grapes. Servicio Agricola y Ganadero, Go b ierno 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]. Ch ilean Servicio Agrícola y Ganadero (SAG), Chile. 26 pp. Servicio Agricola y Ganadero. 200 7

. Chile Pre Clearance Program Low Prevalence Pilot Program

for Brevipalpus chilensis B. in Grapes. Servicio Agricola y Ganadero, Go b ierno 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,

AP HIS, PPQ. Riverdale, MD. 30 pp. USDA. 2002. Importation of Fresh Commercial Citrus Fruit: Clementine ( Citrus reticulata

Blanco var. c lementine ) Mandarin ( Citrus reticulata Blanco) and Tangerine ( Citrus

reticulata Blanco) from Chile into the United Sta tes. A Pathway Initiated Plant Pest Risk Assessment. USDA, APHIS, PPQ, Riverdale, MD. 74pp. USDA. 2004. Agricultural Quarantine Inspection Monitoring (AQIM) Handbook. USDA

APHIS, PPQ; http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppq/manuals/port/AQIM_Chapters.htm
[accesse d July 2009].

USDA

. 200 6. Importation of Fresh Commercial Sweet Orange ( Citrus sinensis [L.] Osbeck) and Grapefruit ( Citrus x paradis i Macfad.) fruit from Chile into the United States . A Pathway

- Initiated Plant Pest Risk Analysis. USDA, APHIS, PPQ, CPHS T, 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 Know n to Occur in the United States or of Limited Distribution No. 74: Cabbage Moth

- Mamestra brassicae L. September 1986. USDA, A PHIS, PPQ. Hyatt sville, MD. 15 pp.