United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Plant Protection and Quarantine



## Commodity Import Evaluation Document (CIED)



## Importation of Fresh Fruits of Kiwi ( Actinidia deliciosa and Actinidia chinensis ) from Chile into

the United States

Count r y of Origin : Chile Date of Request : 1 1 /201 2

Commodity: k iwi

Common name kiwi Scientific name s : ( Actinidia

deliciosa Liang & Ferguson and

Actinidia chinensis Planch.)

Plant Health Programs (PHP) Regulations, Permits and Manuals ( RPM )

Contact Person: Claudia Ferguson2



### Introduction

Chile was initially given market access for kiwi fruit in 1984 ( USDA Decision Sheets on file in Riverdale), with inspection for any pests and a certification that the fruit came from a Medfly free

area of Chile (USDA, undated ) . In 1996 there were numerou s interceptions of Brevipalpus

chilensis mites (Chilean false red mite) on k iwi from Chile at the ports of Philadelphia PA, Wilmington DE, Newark NJ and Long Beach CA. APHIS began requiring m ethyl b romide fumigation (T104

- a

- 1), either in Chile or at the f irst port of arrival in the U nited States ( USDA,
1996).

T he mandatory fumigation for mites was lifted during the 1997

- 1998 season on a trial basis for a systems approach proposed by Chile in February 1997. Further adjustments to this systems approach wer e made in 2001. The v olume s of kiwi fruit import ed to the U nited States under this systems approach have been relatively low (Table 1)

.

The systems approach for kiwi has been included in the Chile pre

- clearance workplan

, which covers exports of all fru its from Chile. The m ethyl b romide treatment for Brevipalpus chilensis is available if mites are present

, and is included in the PPQ Treatment Manual and in the Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Import Manual and FAVIR (USDA 2012a; 2012b; 2012c)

. Until recentl y,

t he systems approach for Chilean k iwi h a d not been listed in F AVIR and the Import Manual

, although the systems approach has been used since 1998 for Chilean kiwi fruit. (FAVIR has been recently updated to show the correct entry status for Chilean kiwi fruit under a systems approach.)

The original decision sheet for kiwi from Chile identified Medfly ( Ceratitis capitata ) as the only pest that followed the pathway of fresh kiwi (USDA, undated) . In June 2010, APHIS

rec ognized all of Chile as free of Medf ly

, so subsequently t he only quarantine pe st that is likely

to follow the pathway of consignments of fresh kiwi is :

Brevipalpus chilensis Baker (Acari: Tenuipalpidae)

, Chilean false red mite

In a separate risk assessment that considered the likelihood a nd consequences of introducing Brevipalpus chilensis , this pest was rated as a Medium pest risk potential (USDA, 2008)

. Pests

with medium pest risk potential may require measures in addition to inspection at the port of entry to mitigate risk (USDA, 2000)

. The main reason for the requirement of fumigation with

m ethyl b romide for a medium risk pest was the frequency that this pest was intercepted by APHIS inspectors at ports of entry

.

Kiwi import volumes from Chile.

APHIS records on imports show, from 2006 to 2012, that 24 shipments of kiwi totaling 47,883 cases of fruit were imported from Chile (Table 1) . During the same period, about 13 million cases of kiwi were imported subject to m ethyl b romide fumigation at the port of entry

.3

Table 1. Kiwi im ported from Chile 2006

– 2012

SEASON INSPECTED IN CHILE FUMIGATED With MB

cases lots cases

2006/2007 2,093,302

2007/2008 2,449 1 1,615,988

2008/2009 1,955,313

2009/2010 2,143,393

2010/2011 7,040 3 2,195,883

2011/2012 38,394 20 3,191 ,162



### Pest Interceptions

APHIS has intercepted a number of pests (286 total) on Chile an kiwi since 1984 (Table 2) . Most of the pests intercepted on Chile an kiwi are considered to be hitchhiking on the fruit, or some type of contaminant from the field or packing house. Examples of hitchhiking pests would include crickets, thrips and tenebrionid beetles. The se same types of pests are intercepted on all types of fresh fruit s imported to the United States from Chile. Since 1999, APHIS has intercepted far fewer pests : 15 Frankliniela australis (thrips), 1 Frankliniella sp., 1 Gryllus sp. (cricket), 1 Gelechiidae sp. (moth larva) and 7 Brevipalpus chilensis

. All of these recent interceptions

, except 1 thrips and 6 Brevipalpus chilensis mites

, were intercep ted by the APHIS preclearance program in Chile. The interceptions in Chile by APHIS pre

- clearance meant that

th ose consignments were not exported to the United States (unless fumigated with m ethyl

b romide) and the places of production were subsequently ex cluded from the export program for the rest of the growing season, unless the ir exports were treated with m ethyl b romide. The other 6 interceptions of Brevipalpus chilensis mites were at Philadelphia on kiwi after treatment with methyl bromide. As a res ult of this finding of live mites post

- treatment, the methyl bromide treatment dosage for Brevipalpus chilensis mites was increased to make it more effective. Other than the methyl bromide treatment issue in 2006, only 1 quarantine pest

— a thrips species

—has been intercepted on Chil ean kiwi at a United States port of entry since 1998.

Table 2. Pests intercepted with Chile kiwi from 1984 through 2012.

Species Family Number intercepted
Agrotis lutescens (Blanchard) Noctuidae 2 Rhodometra sacraria (Lin naeus) Geometridae 1 Hoplosphyrum griseus (Philippi) Gryllidae 9

Frankliniella cestrum Moulton Thripidae 15 Blapstinus punctulatus Solier Tenebrionidae 65 Faronta albilinea (Hubner) Noctuidae 1 Acanthoscelides pyrrhomelas Bruchidae 14

(Philippi)

Cono derus rufangulus (Gyllenhal) Elateridae 9 Microgryllus pallipes Philippi Gryllidae 11 Arhyssus tricostatus (Spinola) Rhopalidae 8 Hylurgus ligniperda (Fabricius) Scolytidae 4 Neotermes chilensis (Blanchard) Kalotermitidae 2 Hylastes ater (Paykull) Sc olytidae 5 Naupactus xanthographus (Germar) Curculionidae 1

Kuschelina decorata (Blanchard) Chrysomelidae 4 Galgupha albipennis (Eschscholtz) Thyreocoridae 1

Lithraeus egenus (Blanchard) Bruchidae 1

Sibinia albovittata Blanchard Cucurlionidae 1

Brevi palpus chilensis Baker Tenuipalpidae 31 Frankliniella australis (Morgan) Thripidae 16

Other Taxa intercepted not identified to species
Orthoptera sp. 1 Olethreutinae sp. Tortricidae 1 Tineidae sp. 1 Tortricinae sp. Tortricidae 7 Gryllus sp. Gryllidae 6 Gryllidae sp. 1 Tortricidae sp. 1 Nycterinus sp. Tenebrionidae 1 Nysius sp. Lygaeidae 9 Gelechiidae sp. 7 Chrysomelidae sp. 1 Cicadellidae sp. 1 Agrotis sp. Noctuidae 1 Sitona sp. Cucurlionidae 1 Blapstinus sp. Tenebrionidae 2

L istoderes sp. Cucurlionidae 1 Pseudococcidae sp. 1 Frankliniella sp. Thripidae 1

APHIS proposes to include the systems approach for Chilean kiwi fruit in the FAVIR and Fresh

Fruit s and Vegetable s Import Manual since the fruit has been actually enteri ng the United States using this system since 1998. The following measures are proposed:



### Risk Management Measures

Monitoring and Oversight

The National Plant Protection Organization ( NPPO ) of Chile must provide a workplan to APHIS

that details the acti vities 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 the NPPO , Servicio5

Agr icola y Ganadero ( 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 o f 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 doc uments 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.

Requirements for places of p roduction

Registered places of production

. K iwi fruit must be gr own in places of production that are registered with the NPPO of Chile. 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 cer tify 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.

Traceability. Harvested kiwi fruit must be placed in field cartons or co ntainers that are marked to show the official registration number of the production site. The place of production where

the kiwi were grown must remain identifiable when the fruit leaves the grove, at the packinghouse, and throughout the export process.



### 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 NPPO o f 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.6

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 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 prevalence wi ll 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 revipalpus chi lensis 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 ).

Post

- harvest processing.

After harvest all damaged or diseased fruits must be culled at the packinghouse and must be packed into new, clean boxes, crates 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 identified in the shipping documents accompanying each lot of fruit to specify the production site or sites in which the fruit was produce d

, 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.

The fruit must be inspected in Chile at an APHIS

- approved inspection site under the di rection of APHIS inspectors in coordination with the NPPO of Chile after the post

- harvest processing. A biometric sample will be drawn and examined from each consignment of fruit, which may represent multiple grower lots. The fruit from these boxes must also 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

. Consignments with mites will be rejected from the systems approach , but may still be exported to the United States with require d fumigation with methyl bromide.

Post harvest processing such as culling damaged fruit and sampling for mites will remove fruit7

that may contain pests. Culling is a standard procedure to produce q uality 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 inspec ted 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.



### Effi cacy of Risk Management Measures

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

from Chile. The measures chosen for risk m anagement on fresh kiwi from Chile are summarized

in Table 3

. Table 4 shows a summa ry of the systems approach used to mitigate for the mite,

B revipalpus chilensis

.

Table 3

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

. Measure(s) Pests Efficacy
Monitoring and Oversight Brevipalpus chilensis but

must be used in

co njunction 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. P laces 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 th e 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 4

. Summary of systems ap proach 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 prog r am to only quali fied sites. Commercially grown shipments from registered production sites use good agricultural practices to reduce or eliminate pests ( IPPC , 200 5 ) . APHIS pest interception database indicates that commercial shipments are much less likely to have pest i nterceptions than non

- commercial shipments8 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. P roduction 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 Proces sing After harvest and before packing, a biometric sample from each

cons ignment must be selected by SAG . 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 kiwi fruit 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 da mage they cause to the

fruits which would allow detection of these pests in some cases (CABI, 200 6 ; USDA, 1982; USDA, 2004; Whittle, 1986)



### Summary

APHIS concludes that shipments of fresh kiwi fruit that originate from Chile may be imported safely to th e United States without the risk of introducing Brevipalpus chilensis using a combination of the mitigations listed above. This systems approach has been used since 1998, along with m ethyl b romide fumigation to import kiwi fruit from Chile. The number o f pests intercepted since 1998 in permit cargo of commercial kiwi from Chile has been very low ; only about 18 pests have been intercepted on Chilean kiwi

. Some of the interceptions were in Chile by APHIS preclearance personnel, other interceptions of mite s post methyl bromide treatment prompted revision of the treatment. There is only one actual interception otherwise, a thrips species. This systems approach has also been effective for exporting Chilean citrus that are free

of Brevipalpus chilensis mite s into the United States (USDA; 2002, 2006).9

Recommendations

APHIS concludes that shipments of fresh kiwi fruit that originate from Chile may be imported safely to the United States without the risk of introducing Brevipalpus chilensis using a

com bination of the mitigations listed above. APHIS proposes to include the systems approach

for Chilean kiwi fruit in the FAVIR and Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Import Manual since the fruit has been actually entering the United States using this system sinc e 1998. (FAVIR has been recently updated to show the correct entry status for Chilean kiwi fruit under a systems approach.)

________________________________________________________________________



### _X_ APPROVED

___ DISAPPROVED

__Walter P. Gould_

_________ ___ October, 15, 2013

_____ Signature (name) Date

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UK.

IPPC . 2005. Int ernational 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 Soci ety, St. Paul, MN. 213 pp. Servicio Agricola y Ganadero. 2002. 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. 108 pp.10

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. 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. Undated. “Log Sheet” for Decisions on ENTRY STATUS of Fruits & Vegetables under
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. 200 6. Importation of Fresh Commercial Sweet O range ( Citrus sinensis [L.] Osbeck) and Grapefruit ( Citrus x paradis i Macfad.) fruit from Chile into the United States . A Pathway

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. A Qualitative, Pathway

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Assessment . 23 pp.

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accessed Nov. 2012.

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accessed Nov. 2012. USDA. 2012c. Fruits and Vegetables Imports Requirements Database (FAVIR). https://epermits.aphis.usda.gov/manual/index.cfm?CFID=577062&CFTOKEN=f8828e01

d2a7bdf7

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acces sed Nov. 2012.
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,

A PHIS, PPQ. Hyatt sville, MD. 15 pp.