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 Michoacán, Mexico into Puerto 

Rico

County of Origin: Mexico Date of Request: Dec. 29, 2006

Commodity:

Scientific name: Persea americana Mill. Common name: Hass avocado 

________________________________________________________________________

Background

The Animal 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) requesting to expand market access of Mexican Hass avocado 

(Persea americana Mill. var. „Hass‟) fruits from the currently approved 50 States and add

access for exports into Puerto Rico (Trujillo, 2006). In 2004, APHIS conducted a risk 

assessment for the import of fresh Hass avocado fruits from Mexico into all 50 States 

(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 

(Copturus aguacatae), the seed moth (Stenoma catenifer), and the fruit flies (Anastrepha

striata, A. ludens and Ceratitis capitata)

The required mitigations analyzed in the pest risk assessment (USDA, 2004) are 

currently in place (CFR 319.56-30). The present risk management mitigations are 

components of a systems approach with import requirements which include trapping, 

orchard certification, limited production area, trace back labeling, pre-harvest orchard 
2

surveys for all pests, orchard sanitation, post-harvest safeguards, fruit cutting and 

inspection at the packinghouse, port-of-arrival inspection, and clearance activities. 

Requirements 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-2006-0189) and 

effective on July 30, 2009, based on research showing that those requirements were no 

longer technically justified.

Domestic and enterable foreign avocados are authorized interstate movement between all

50 States. Currently, there are no restrictions on the movement of these Hass avocados 

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

(OEA) of Puerto Rico, 3.5 tons of avocados with a value of 4.3 million U.S. dollars were 

imported from the continental U.S. to Puerto Rico between 1998 and 2008 (OEA, 2009). 

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

318.58-2. Since avocados can be legally moved between Puerto Rico and the 50 States,

quarantine pests considered in the pest risk assessment for the import of Mexican Hass 

avocados to the 50 States (USDA, 2004) effectively applies 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 inspection ports) for quarantine pests. There have been only two incidents where 

pests have been detected on 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 where 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 States, and because foreign avocado entering the United States may 

also move to Puerto Rico without additional requirements, we have 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 States. 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 risks 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: Request for market access of Hass avocado from Mexico 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 Trade statistics of the 

planning board of Puerto Rico (Federal Commerce). 5 pp. 

Authors:

José R. Hernández (Senior Risk Manager) September 17, 2009

Walter P Gould (Senior Risk Manager)

David B Lamb (Import Specialist)