United States Department of Agriculture
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

Plant Protection and Quarantine



## Commodity Import Evaluation Document (CIED)



### Importation of Hass Avocado fruit from Michoac á n , Mexico into Puerto

Rico

County o f Origin : Mexico 

### D ate of Request: Dec

. 29, 2006



### Commodity :

Scientific name: Persea americana Mill. 

### Common name: Hass avocado

________________________________________________________________________



### Background

The Ani mal and Plant Health Inspection Service ( APHIS ) Plant Protection and

Quarantine ( PPQ ) ‟s Phytosanitary Issues Management (PIM) received a request from the

“ Director General de Sanidad Vegetal ” of the Mexico National Plant Protection
Organization (NPPO) requ esting to expand market access of Mexican Hass avocado

( Persea a mericana Mill. var. „Hass‟) fruits from the current ly approved 50 S tates and add

access for ex ports into Puerto Rico (Trujillo, 2006)

. In 2004

, APHIS conducted a r isk

a ssessment for the impor t of fresh Hass avocado fruits from Mexico into all 50 S tates (USDA, 2004) and concluded that there was a low likelihood of introduction of three

seed weevils ( Conotrachelus aguacatae

, C. perseae and Heilipus lauri ), the stem weevil

( C opturus aguacatae ), t he seed moth ( S tenoma catenifer ), and the fruit flies (A nastrepha

striata, A. ludens and C eratitis capitata )

The required mitigations analyzed in the pest risk assessment (USDA, 2004) are currently in place (CFR 319.56

- 30 ) . The present risk management m itigations are components of a systems approach with import requirements which include trapping,
orchard certification, limited production area, trace back labeling, pre

- harvest orchard2

surveys for all pests, orchard sanitation, post

- harvest safeguards, fr uit cutting and
inspection at the packinghouse, port

- of

- arrival inspection, and clearance activities.

R equirements for Anastrepha spp

. were removed in a final rule published in the Federal
Register on June 30, 2009 (74 FR 31154

- 31160, Docket No. APHIS

- 200 6

- 0189) and
effective on July 30, 2009, based on research showing that those requirements were no longer technically jus tified.

Domestic and enterable foreign a vocados are authorized interstate movement between all

50 S tates

. Currently

, there are no restr ictions on the movement of these Hass avocados

between the 50 S tates and Puerto Rico. According to “Oficina de Estadísticas Agrícolas”

(OEA) of Puerto Rico

, 3.5 t o n s of avocados with a value of 4.3 million U.S. dollars were
imported from the c ontinental U. S. to Puerto Rico between 1998 and 2008 ( OEA , 2009 ).

Avocados movement is authorized from Puerto Rico to all 50 S tates as per 7 CFR

318.58

- 2. Since avocados can be legally move d between Puerto Rico and the 50 S tates

, quarantine pests considered in the pes t risk assessment for the import of Mexican Hass

avocado s to the 50 S tates (USDA, 2004) effectively appl i e s to Puerto Rico as well.



### Pest Findings

/Interceptions

Between 1997 and 2006

, more than 28 million Hass avocados from Mexico have been

cut open for quarantine pest inspection and no fruit flies were found (USDA, 2007) . This

includes inspection of fruit from wild trees, backyards, packing houses and border
inspection ( 20

. 2 million in the orchards, 7

. 2 million in packing houses, and 602,490 at

border i nspection ports ) for quarantine pests. There have been only two incidents where
pests have been detected o n Mexican avocados in the nine years of fruit cutting and
inspection. In both cases, Contrachelus perseae was found in backyard avocado trees

(which were not Hass variety), and the municipalities w h ere they were found, Tacambaro
and Tinguidin, were suspended from the program until eradication actions were
completed.



### Recommendation

Because the systems approach currently in place is successful in mitigating the risks of
introducing quarantine pests associated with the importation of Hass avocado from

Mexico into the 50 S tates

, and because foreign avocado entering the United States may
also move to Puerto Rico without additional requirements, we hav e concluded that the
current systems approach will also adequately mitigate the risks of introducing quarantine
pests into Puerto Rico as well

.

We recommend allowing the importation of Hass avocados from Michoacán , Mexico into

Puerto Rico under the same systems approach required for importation of Hass avocados

into the 50 S tates . Mexican Hass avocado would continue to be prohibited importation
into the remaining U.S. territories , pending a request for additional market access and an

evaluation of the ri sks allowing such importation would pose.3



### References

USDA. 2004 . Importation of Avocado Fruit ( Persea americana Mill. var. „Hass‟) from

Mexico . Risk Assessment. 141 pp.

Trujillo, J. 2006, Letter : R equest for market acces s of Hass avocado from Mexic o to Puerto Rico. 1 p.

USDA. 2007. Risk Management Document: Removal of Anastrepha Fruit Fly Trapping Requirements from Mexican „Hass‟ Avocados for Importation into the United States. 4

pp.

OEA. 2009. Importation of Avocados to Puerto Rico. External Trad e statistics of the
planning board of Puerto Rico (Federal Commerce). 5 pp.

Authors:

José R. Hernández ( Senior Risk Manager) September 1 7 , 2009

Walter P Gould (Senior Risk Manager)
David B Lamb (Import Specialist)