Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 73 / Monday, April 16, 2012 / Rules and Regulations 22465 

1To view the proposed rule and supporting 

documents, go to http://www.regulations.gov/ 

#!docketDetail;D=APHIS-2010-0113. 

PART 319—FOREIGN QUARANTINE 

NOTICES 

■ 1. The authority citation for part 319 

continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 7 U.S.C. 450, 7701–7772, and 

7781–7786; 21 U.S.C. 136 and 136a; 7 CFR 

2.22, 2.80, and 371.3. 

§ 319.56–34 [Amended] 

■ 2. In § 319.56–34, paragraph (f) is 

amended as follows: 

■ a. In the paragraph heading, by 

removing the words ‘‘; rates of 

inspection’’. 

■ b. By removing the words ‘‘200 fruit’’ 

and adding in their place the words ‘‘a 

sample of clementines determined by 

APHIS’’. 

Done in Washington, DC, this 9th day of 

April 2012. 

Kevin Shea, 

Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant 

Health Inspection Service. 

[FR Doc. 2012–9067 Filed 4–13–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–34–P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Animal and Plant Health Inspection 

Service 

7 CFR Part 319 

[Docket No. APHIS–2010–0113] 

RIN 0579–AD40 

Importation of Fresh Pitaya Fruit From 

Central America Into the Continental 

United States 

AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health 

Inspection Service, USDA. 

ACTION: Final rule. 

SUMMARY: We are amending the fruits 

and vegetables regulations to allow the 

importation of fresh pitaya fruit from 

Central America into the continental 

United States. As a condition of entry, 

the pitaya fruit must be produced in 

accordance with a systems approach 

that includes requirements for 

monitoring and oversight, establishment 

of pest-free places of production, and 

procedures for packing the pitaya fruit. 

This action will allow for the 

importation of pitaya fruit from Central 

America into the continental United 

States while continuing to provide 

protection against the introduction of 

plant pests. 

DATES: Effective Date: May 16, 2012. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. 

David Lamb, Import Specialist, 

Regulatory Coordination and 

Compliance, PPQ, APHIS, 4700 River 

Road Unit 133, Riverdale, MD 20737– 

1236; (301) 851–2103. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

The regulations in ‘‘Subpart—Fruits 

and Vegetables’’ (7 CFR 319.56–1 

through 319.56–54, referred to below as 

the regulations) prohibit or restrict the 

importation of fruits and vegetables into 

the United States from certain parts of 

the world to prevent the introduction 

and dissemination of plant pests within 

the United States. 

On May 24, 2011, we published in the 

Federal Register (76 FR 30036–30040, 

Docket No. APHIS–2010–0113) a 

proposal 1 to amend the regulations by 

allowing fresh pitaya from Central 

America to be imported into the 

continental United States. We proposed 

that, as a condition of entry, the pitaya 

fruit must be produced in accordance 

with a systems approach that includes 

requirements for monitoring and 

oversight, establishment of pest-free 

places of production, and procedures for 

packing the pitaya fruit. 

We solicited comments concerning 

our proposal for 60 days ending July 25, 

2011. We did not receive any comments. 

Therefore, for the reasons given in the 

proposed rule, we are adopting the 

proposed rule as a final rule, without 

change. 

Executive Order 12866 and Regulatory 

Flexibility Act 

This final rule has been determined to 

be not significant for the purposes of 

Executive Order 12866 and, therefore, 

has not been reviewed by the Office of 

Management and Budget. 

In accordance with the Regulatory 

Flexibility Act, we have analyzed the 

potential economic effects of this action 

on small entities. The analysis is 

summarized below. Copies of the full 

analysis are available by contacting the 

person listed under FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION CONTACT or on the 

Regulations.gov Web site (see footnote 1 

for a link to Regulations.gov). 

This rule will allow the importation 

of fresh pitaya fruit into the continental 

United States from the Central 

American countries of Belize, Costa 

Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, 

Nicaragua, and Panama in accordance 

with a systems approach that includes 

requirements for monitoring and 

oversight, establishment of pest-free 

places of production, and procedures for 

packing the pitaya fruit. Entities 

potentially affected by the rule are U.S. 

pitaya fruit growers, of which most, if 

not all, are small entities. 

Pitaya fruit is produced in Hawaii, 

California, and Florida, but the 

quantities produced, numbers of U.S. 

producers, quantities imported, and 

other factors needed to assess likely 

economic effects of this rule are not 

known. The quantity of pitaya fruit 

expected to be imported from Belize, 

Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, 

Honduras, and Panama is also 

unknown. Nicaragua estimates 

exporting 1,200 metric tons (60 fortyfoot containers) of pitaya fruit to the 

continental U.S. annually, and it is 

thought that the other countries may 

ship similar or lesser amounts. 

Executive Order 12988 

This final rule allows fresh pitaya to 

be imported into the United States from 

Central America. State and local laws 

and regulations regarding pitaya 

imported under this rule will be 

preempted while the fruit is in foreign 

commerce. Fresh fruits and vegetables 

are generally imported for immediate 

distribution and sale to the consuming 

public, and remain in foreign commerce 

until sold to the ultimate consumer. The 

question of when foreign commerce 

ceases in other cases must be addressed 

on a case-by-case basis. No retroactive 

effect will be given to this rule, and this 

rule will not require administrative 

proceedings before parties may file suit 

in court challenging this rule. 

Paperwork Reduction Act 

In accordance with the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 

et seq.), the information collection or 

recordkeeping requirements included in 

this rule have been approved by the 

Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB) under OMB control number 

0579–0378. 

E-Government Act Compliance 

The Animal and Plant Health 

Inspection Service is committed to 

compliance with the E-Government Act 

to promote the use of the Internet and 

other information technologies, to 

provide increased opportunities for 

citizen access to Government 

information and services, and for other 

purposes. For information pertinent to 

E-Government Act compliance related 

to this rule, please contact Mrs. Celeste 

Sickles, APHIS’ Information Collection 

Coordinator, at (301) 851–2908. 

List of Subjects in 7 CFR Part 319 

Coffee, Cotton, Fruits, Imports, Logs, 

Nursery stock, Plant diseases and pests, 

Quarantine, Reporting and 


emcdonald on DSK29S0YB1PROD with RULES
22466 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 73 / Monday, April 16, 2012 / Rules and Regulations 

recordkeeping requirements, Rice, 

Vegetables. 

Accordingly, we are amending 7 CFR 

part 319 as follows: 

PART 319—FOREIGN QUARANTINE 

NOTICES 

■ 1. The authority citation for part 319 

continues to read as follows 

Authority: 7 U.S.C. 450, 7701–7772, and 

7781–7786; 21 U.S.C. 136 and 136a; 7 CFR 

2.22, 2.80, and 371.3. 

■ 2. A new § 319.56–55 is added to read 

as follows: 

§ 319.56–55 Fresh pitaya from certain 

Central American countries. 

Fresh pitaya fruit (Hylocereus spp.) 

may be imported into the United States 

from Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, 

Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and 

Panama in accordance with the 

conditions described in this section. 

These conditions are designed to 

prevent the introduction of the 

following quarantine pests: Anastrepha 

ludens, Ceratitis capitata, Dysmicoccus 

neobrevipes, and Planococcus minor. 

(a) Monitoring and oversight. (1) The 

national plant protection organization 

(NPPO) of the exporting country must 

provide a workplan to APHIS that 

details the activities that the NPPO will, 

subject to APHIS approval, carry out to 

meet the requirements of this section. 

APHIS will be directly involved with 

the NPPO in the monitoring and 

auditing implementation of the systems 

approach. 

(2) The NPPO of the exporting 

country must conduct inspections at the 

packinghouses and monitor 

packinghouse operations. Starting 2 

months before harvest and continuing 

until the end of the shipping season, the 

NPPO of the exporting country must 

visit and inspect the places of 

production monthly to verify 

compliance with the requirements of 

this section. If the NPPO finds that a 

packinghouse or place of production is 

not complying with the requirements of 

this section, no fruit from the place of 

production or packinghouse will be 

eligible for export to the United States 

until APHIS and the NPPO have 

conducted an investigation and 

appropriate remedial actions have been 

implemented. 

(3) The NPPO 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. 

(b) Place of production requirements. 

(1) The personnel conducting the 

trapping required in paragraph (c) of 

this section must be hired, trained, and 

supervised by the NPPO of the 

exporting country. The exporting 

country’s NPPO must certify that each 

place of production has effective fruit 

fly trapping programs, and follows 

control guidelines, when necessary, to 

reduce quarantine pest populations. 

APHIS may monitor the places of 

production. 

(2) The places of production 

producing pitaya for export to the 

United States must be registered with 

the NPPO of the exporting country. 

(3) Trees and other structures, other 

than the crop itself, must not shade the 

crop during the day. No C. capitata or 

A. ludens host plants may be grown 

within 100 meters of the edge of the 

production site. 

(4) Pitaya fruit that has fallen on the 

ground must be removed from the place 

of production at least once every 7 days 

and may not be included in field 

containers of fruit to be packed for 

export. 

(5) Harvested pitaya fruit must be 

placed in field cartons or containers that 

are marked to show the place of 

production. 

(c) Mitigation measures for C. capitata 

and A. ludens—(1) Pest-free places of 

production. (i) Beginning at least 1 year 

before harvest begins and continuing 

through the end of the shipping season, 

trapping for A. ludens and C. capitata 

must be conducted in the places of 

pitaya fruit production with at least 1 

trap per hectare of APHIS-approved 

traps, serviced every 7 days. 

(ii) From 2 months prior to harvest 

through the end of the shipping season, 

when traps are serviced, if either A. 

ludens or C. capitata are trapped at a 

particular place of production at 

cumulative levels above 0.07 flies per 

trap per day, pesticide bait treatments 

must be applied in the affected place of 

production in order for the place of 

production to remain eligible to export 

pitaya fruit to the continental United 

States. If the average A. ludens or C. 

capitata catch is greater than 0.07 flies 

per trap per day for more than 2 

consecutive weeks, the place of 

production is ineligible for export until 

the rate of capture drops to an average 

of less than 0.07 flies per trap per day. 

(iii) The NPPO must maintain records 

of fruit fly detections for each trap, 

update the records each time the traps 

are checked, and make the records 

available to APHIS upon request. The 

records must be maintained for at least 

1 year for APHIS review. 

(2) Pest-free area for C. capitata. If the 

pitaya fruit are produced in a place of 

production located in an area that is 

designated as free of C. capitata in 

accordance with § 319.56–5, the 

trapping in paragraph (c)(1) of this 

section is not required for C. capitata. 

(d) Packinghouse requirements. (1) 

The packinghouses must be registered 

with the NPPO of the exporting country. 

(2) All openings to the outside must 

be covered by screening with openings 

of not more than 1.6 mm or by some 

other barrier that prevents pests from 

entering the packinghouses. 

(3) The packinghouses must have 

double doors at the entrance to the 

facilities and at the interior entrance to 

the area where the pitaya fruit are 

packed. 

(4) While in use for packing pitaya 

fruit for export to the United States, the 

packinghouses may only accept pitaya 

fruit that are from registered places of 

production and that are produced in 

accordance with the requirements of 

this section. 

(e) Post-harvest procedures. The 

pitaya fruit must be packed within 24 

hours of harvest in a pest-exclusionary 

packinghouse. Pitaya fruit must be 

packed in insect-proof cartons or 

containers that can be sealed at the 

packinghouse, or covered with insectproof mesh or a plastic tarpaulin for 

transport to the United States. These 

safeguards must be intact upon arrival 

in the United States. 

(f) Phytosanitary inspection. (1) The 

NPPO of the exporting country must 

visually inspect a biometric sample of 

pitaya fruit, jointly approved by APHIS 

and the NPPO of the exporting country, 

for D. neobrevipes and P. minor, and cut 

open a portion of the fruit to detect A. 

ludens and C. capitata. If the fruit is 

from a pest-free area for C. capitata, 

then the fruit will only be inspected for 

A. ludens. 

(2) The fruit are subject to inspection 

at the port of entry for all quarantine 

pests of concern. Shipping documents 

identifying the place(s) of production in 

which the fruit was produced and the 

packing shed(s) in which the fruit was 

processed must accompany each lot of 

fruit presented for inspection at the port 

of entry to the United States. This 

identification must be maintained until 

the fruit is released for entry into the 

United States. 

(3) If D. neobrevipes or P. minor is 

found, the entire consignment of fruit 

will be prohibited from import into the 

United States unless the shipment is 

treated with an approved treatment 

monitored by APHIS. If inspectors 

(either from the exporting country’s 

NPPO or at the U.S. port of entry) find 

a single fruit fly larva in a shipment, 

they will reject the entire consignment 

for shipment to the United States, and 

the place of production for that 


emcdonald on DSK29S0YB1PROD with RULES
Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 73 / Monday, April 16, 2012 / Rules and Regulations 22467 

shipment will be suspended from the 

export program until appropriate 

measures, agreed upon by the NPPO of 

the exporting country and APHIS, have 

been taken. 

(g) Commercial consignments. The 

pitaya fruit may be imported in 

commercial consignments only. 

(h) Phytosanitary certificate. Each 

consignment of pitaya fruit must be 

accompanied by a phytosanitary 

certificate issued by the NPPO of the 

exporting country, containing an 

additional declaration stating that the 

fruit in the consignment was produced 

in accordance with requirements in 7 

CFR 319.56–55. 

(Approved by the Office of Management and 

Budget under control number 0579–0378) 

Done in Washington, DC, this 9th day of 

April 2012. 

Kevin Shea, 

Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant 

Health Inspection Service. 

[FR Doc. 2012–9066 Filed 4–13–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 3410–34–P 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

Federal Crop Insurance Corporation 

7 CFR Part 457 

[Docket No. FCIC–11–0006] 

RIN 0563–AC32 

Common Crop Insurance Regulations; 

Fresh Market Tomato (Dollar Plan) 

Crop Provisions 

AGENCY: Federal Crop Insurance 

Corporation, USDA. 

ACTION: Final rule. 

SUMMARY: The Federal Crop Insurance 

Corporation (FCIC) finalizes the 

Common Crop Insurance Regulations, 

Fresh Market Tomato (Dollar Plan) Crop 

Provisions. The intended effect of this 

action is to provide policy changes and 

clarify existing policy provisions to 

better meet the needs of insured 

producers, and to reduce vulnerability 

to program fraud, waste, and abuse. The 

changes will apply for the 2013 and 

succeeding crop years. 

DATES: This rule is effective April 16, 

2012. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tim 

Hoffmann, Director, Product 

Administration and Standards Division, 

Risk Management Agency, United States 

Department of Agriculture, Beacon 

Facility, Stop 0812, Room 421, P.O. Box 

419205, Kansas City, MO 64141–6205, 

telephone (816) 926–7730. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Executive Order 12866 

This rule has been determined to be 

non-significant for the purposes of 

Executive Order 12866 and, therefore, it 

has not been reviewed by the Office of 

Management and Budget. 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 

Pursuant to the provisions of the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 

U.S.C. chapter 35), the collections of 

information in this rule have been 

approved by OMB under control 

number 0563–0053. 

E-Government Act Compliance 

FCIC is committed to complying with 

the E-Government Act, to promote the 

use of the Internet and other 

information technologies to provide 

increased opportunities for citizen 

access to Government information and 

services, and for other purposes. 

Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 

1995 

Title II of the Unfunded Mandates 

Reform Act of 1995 (UMRA) establishes 

requirements for Federal agencies to 

assess the effects of their regulatory 

actions on State, local, and tribal 

governments and the private sector. 

This rule contains no Federal mandates 

(under the regulatory provisions of title 

II of the UMRA) for State, local, and 

tribal governments or the private sector. 

Therefore, this rule is not subject to the 

requirements of sections 202 and 205 of 

UMRA. 

Executive Order 13132 

It has been determined under section 

1(a) of Executive Order 13132, 

Federalism, that this rule does not have 

sufficient implications to warrant 

consultation with the States. The 

provisions contained in this rule will 

not have a substantial direct effect on 

States, or on the relationship between 

the national government and the States, 

or on the distribution of power and 

responsibilities among the various 

levels of government. 

Executive Order 13175 

This rule has been reviewed in 

accordance with the requirements of 

Executive Order 13175, Consultation 

and Coordination with Indian Tribal 

Governments. The review reveals that 

this regulation will not have substantial 

and direct effects on Tribal governments 

and will not have significant Tribal 

implications. 

Regulatory Flexibility Act 

FCIC certifies that this regulation will 

not have a significant economic impact 

on a substantial number of small 

entities. Program requirements for the 

Federal crop insurance program are the 

same for all producers regardless of the 

size of their farming operation. For 

instance, all producers are required to 

submit an application and acreage 

report to establish their insurance 

guarantees and compute premium 

amounts, and all producers are required 

to submit a notice of loss and 

production information to determine the 

amount of an indemnity payment in the 

event of an insured cause of crop loss. 

Whether a producer has 10 acres or 

1000 acres, there is no difference in the 

kind of information collected. To ensure 

crop insurance is available to small 

entities, the Federal Crop Insurance Act 

authorizes FCIC to waive collection of 

administrative fees from limited 

resource farmers. FCIC believes this 

waiver helps to ensure that small 

entities are given the same opportunities 

as large entities to manage their risks 

through the use of crop insurance. A 

Regulatory Flexibility Analysis has not 

been prepared since this regulation does 

not have an impact on small entities, 

and, therefore, this regulation is exempt 

from the provisions of the Regulatory 

Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 605). 

Federal Assistance Program 

This program is listed in the Catalog 

of Federal Domestic Assistance under 

No. 10.450. 

Executive Order 12372 

This program is not subject to the 

provisions of Executive Order 12372, 

which require intergovernmental 

consultation with State and local 

officials. See the Notice related to 7 CFR 

part 3015, subpart V, published at 48 FR 

29115, June 24, 1983. 

Executive Order 12988 

This final rule has been reviewed in 

accordance with Executive Order 12988 

on civil justice reform. The provisions 

of this rule will not have a retroactive 

effect. The provisions of this rule will 

preempt State and local laws to the 

extent such State and local laws are 

inconsistent herewith. With respect to 

any direct action taken by FCIC or 

action by FCIC directing the insurance 

provider to take specific action under 

the terms of the crop insurance policy, 

the administrative appeal provisions 

published at 7 CFR part 11, or 7 CFR 

part 400, subpart J for the informal 

administrative review process of good 

farming practices as applicable, must be 

exhausted before any action against 

FCIC for judicial review may be brought. 


emcdonald on DSK29S0YB1PROD with RULES