United States Department of Agriculture

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

Plant Protection and Quarantine

Commodity Import Evaluation Document

Country of Origin: Japan Date: July 29, 2009

Commodity: Fresh apple fruit (all varieties) 

Scientific name: Malus domestica Borkh Common name: Apple

Background

Apples (Malus domestica) of the Fuji variety are currently admissible from Japan

(USDA-APHIS, 2008b) into the United States under the provisions of 7 CFR 319.56-27. 

This includes mandatory cold treatment followed by fumigation with methyl bromide as 

provided in 7 CFR 305, and then, inspection of treated fruit by an APHIS inspector 

during preclearance inspections prior to export. The Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, 

Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) has requested that APHIS consider allowing all varieties 

of Malus domestica apples from Japan (Bessho, 2007) into the United States under the 

same conditions as those required for the Fuji variety apples. 

History:

A review of APHIS pest interception data covering the 14 years (1994-2008) of imports

has revealed no interceptions of quarantine significant pests and diseases of concern on

commercial shipments of Fuji apples from Japan (AQAS-PestID 2008). Thus the 

mandatory cold treatment followed by fumigation with methyl bromide and then 

inspection by an APHIS inspector during preclearance of the commodity have been 

effective measures to mitigate pest risk at origin. 

APHIS site visits to export production areas in Japan have not revealed any concerns 

about the efficacy of the systems approach currently in place for allowing Fuji apples 
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from Japan into the United States (USDA-APHIS, 2004; USDA-APHIS, 2006a; USDAAPHIS, 2006b; USDA-APHIS, 2008a). 

Pests of Concern:

The 1994 decision sheet for Fuji apples from Japan (USDA-APHIS, 1994) listed the 

following seven pests of concern, three insects, two mites and two diseases.

Insects: 

 Adoxophyes orana Fischer von Röeslerstamm, (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) 

summer fruit tortrix

 Carposina sasakii Matsumura (=Carposina niponensis Walsingham),

(Lepidoptera: Carposinidae) peach fruit moth 

 Conogethes punctiferalis, (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) Yellow peach moth 

 Mites:

 Tetranychus kanzawai Kishida, (Acari: Tetranychidae) Kanzawa spider mite,

 Tetranychus viennensis (Zacher), (Acari: Tetranychidae) Hawthorn spider 

mite 

Diseases:

 Gymnosporangium yamadae Miyabe ex G. Yamada, (Uredinales: 

Pucciniaceae) Japanese Apple Rust

 Monilinia fructigena Honey ex Whetzel, (Helotiales: Sclerotiniaceae) brown 

rot.

Per APHIS regulations 7 CFR 319.56-27, the following measures are currently 

required for importing Fuji variety apples from Japan.

1. Cold treatment and fumigation.

All approved apples must be cold treated for a minimum of 40 days at a pulp 

temperature of 1.1 C (34 F.) or less. Following the 40 days of cold storage the 

apple shipment will be held in an approved facility until all core temperatures are 

sufficient for T109a fumigation treatment. Apples are fumigated with methyl 

bromide in approved facilities, for 2 hours, using treatments T109a-1, or T109a-2, 

depending on whether plastic or cardboard cartons are used for packing (USDAAPHIS, 2008c). 

2. Preclearance inspection by an APHIS and MAFF inspector.

All apples imported into the United States must be accompanied with a 

phytosanitary certificate issued by MAFF. 

 

3. All shipments are subject to further inspection at port of entry.

Subjecting commodities as apples to cold treatment for a definite period of time reduces 

the temperature at the core of the fruit and subsequently causes mortality to any internal 
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pests that may be present in the fruit. Fumigating the fruit after the cold treatment kills 

any remaining surface pests. This combination treatment T 109a is an APHIS approved 

Probit 9 level (high mortality) treatment for the targeted insect pests. The effectiveness of 

the treatment is further evidenced by the lack of pest interceptions for the past 14 years 

(AQAS-PestID 2008). Though apple varieties may vary in their color, texture and other 

morphological features, the pest complex associated with them remains essentially the 

same and therefore we believe that the treatment currently in use for Fuji apples will be 

effective for the target pests on all other varieties.

Additional Measures:

In addition to the requirements listed in 7 CFR 319.56-27, other measures practiced by 

Japan as standard production practices include:

Registration of orchards: Apple orchards designated for export are to be registered, 

inspected and certified by MAFF. All apples must be bagged during the growing 

season, and free of pests and/or symptoms of brown rot and /or rust diseases.

Safeguards: From April – November 30, consignments must be safeguarded after 

export inspections are completed against reinfestation from pests.

These measures are included in the preclearance workplan for export of Fuji apples from 

Japan to the United States (USDA-APHIS, 2000).

Discussion:

Registration and inspection of apple orchards by MAFF, and bagging of all apples (as 

part of standard production practices) further ensures that quarantine pests of concern will 

not follow the pathway (Kitigawa et al., 1992). Bagging apples specifically excludes 

high risk pests like Lepidoptera larvae (Bessin and Hartman, 2007; Love, 2002). 

Inspection of packed fruit at the packing house by MAFF and oversight inspection by

APHIS during preclearance program activities reduce the probability that pests will 

follow the pathway of fresh apples. Finally, a mandatory cold treatment followed by 

fumigation with methyl bromide as provided in 7 CFR 305, which has been determined 

to be efficacious against a large numbers of pests, provides further security against the 

pests of concern (APHIS, 2008c). Cultural practices and integrated pest control practiced 

in Japan reduce apple pest populations to very low levels (Rieselman, 2009). Varietal 

differences to quarantine treatment are considered to be non-significant by APHIS 

(Krissoff et al., 1997). Consequently, APHIS PPQ considers the risk of introduction of 

insects and diseases through the pathway of all varieties of fresh apples to be very low 

under the systems approach conditions presently in place for Fuji apples.
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Conclusion

The history of the Preclearance Program in Japan indicates that no quarantine pests on 

commercial cargo of Fuji apples have been intercepted/reported/identified at U.S. ports of 

entry from 1994 to present, and no pests of concern have been reported from the preclearance program in Japan. APHIS PPQ considers the pest list on other Malus domestica

apple varieties would not be significantly different from that of Fuji variety apples and 

that the measures currently in place for Fuji apples are also adequate to manage risks

associated with all Malus domestica apple varieties from Japan. Mandatory cold 

treatment followed by fumigation with methyl bromide as provided in 7 CFR 305, which 

has been determined to be efficacious against a large numbers of pests, provides further 

security against the pests of concern regardless of the variety (APHIS, 2008c; Krissoff et 

al., 1997). Therefore we recommend allowing the entry of additional Malus domestica

apple varieties from currently approved areas in Japan to the United States under the 

provisions of 7 CFR 319.56-27.

 X APPROVED 

Conditions of Entry: 

_____ DISAPPROVED

___________________________ _________________

Signature (name) Date 

Authors and Reviewers

Prepared by:

Devaiah A. Muruvanda

Walter Gould 

Patttanjalidal Bissoondial

Reviewed by:

Claudia Ferguson

José R. Hernández 

Paul Gadh

References:

AQAS-PestID. 2008. Agricultural Quarantine Activity Pest Interception Database.

USDA-APHIS-PPQ. Last accessed June 2008.
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Bessho, T. 2007. e-mail from MAFF (Japan) to Dr. Craig T. Fedchock regarding 

termination of additional restrictions on Japan grown fresh apple varieties exported to the 

United States. Sept 28, 2007.

Bessin, R. and J. Hartman. 2007. Bagging apples: Alternative pest management for 

hobbyists. 5 pp. Last accessed April 17, 2007. 

Kitigawa, H., K. Manabe and E.B. Esguerra. 1992. Bagging of fruit on the tree to 

control disease. Acta Horticulturae 321: 871-873.

Krissoff, B., Calvin, L. and Gray, D. 1997. Barriers to Trade in Global Apple Markets. 

Fruit and Tree Nuts Situation and Outlook/FTS-280/August 1997. Economic Research 

Service, USDA

Love, K. 2002. Protective fruit wrapping. http://www.hawaiifruit.net/bag_report.htm. 

13pp. Last accessed July 21, 2008.

Rieselman, D. Perfect to the core. http://www.magazine.uc.edu/0408/japaneseapples.htm

3pp. Last accessed July 30, 2009.

USDA-APHIS. 1994. Decision Sheet. Fuji apples allowed in US, subject to treatments 

and preclearance in Japan. Mar 16, 1994 (see addendum to the 1988 assessment for 

Japanese Fuji apples).

USDA-APHIS. 2000. Work Plan for Japanese Apples to the United States. Official 

Revised date – Jan 6, 2000.

USDA-APHIS. 2004. Sutton, T.P. Trip Report – Fuji Apple Pre-clearance. Oct 13-26, 

2004, 3 pp.

USDA-APHIS. 2006a. Brown, R.M. Japan Apple Inspection and Treatment. Jan 8-26, 

2006, 3 pp.

USDA-APHIS. 2006b. Lightener, J. Trip report – Fuji Apple Pre-clearance Japan, 2006.

Commodity pre-clearance TDY. Oct 16-21, 2006, 4 pp.

USDA-APHIS. 2008a. Dooley, J. Trip Report – Apple Pre-clearance Japan, 2008.

Commodity pre-clearance TDY. Jan 6-23, 2008. 3pp.

USDA-APHIS. 2008b. eManual PPQ Fruit and Vegetables, JAPAN 06/2008-43, page 

3-159. Last accessed June 2008.

USDA-APHIS. 2008c. eTreatment Manual. Treatment Schedules T100 - Schedules for 

Fruit, Nuts, and Vegetable, 5-2-78 of 05/2008-25.