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



## Risk Management Document



## Importation of Fresh Fruits of Pomegranate ( Punica
granatum ) and Fig ( Ficus carica ) from Chile into the

Continental United States

February 24, 2009

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

Contact Person: Claudia FergusonVersion 3 February 24, 2010 2 

### Introduction

The Chilean Servicio Agrícola y Ganadero (SAG), the national plant protection organization (NPPO) of Chile, requested to export fresh figs ( Ficus carica L.) and pomegranates ( Punica

granatum L.) to the continental United States. SAG conducted Pest Risk Assessments (PRA) for fresh figs and pomegranates and provided them to APHIS in August 2004 (Servicio Agrícola y Ganadero, 2004). APHIS developed a PRA using the pest list in the SAG PRA, a search of the literature and APHIS pest interception records (USDA, 2007). The APHIS PRA identified two quarantine pests that are likely to be introduced into the continental United States in consignments of fresh figs or pomegranates:

Brevipalpus chilensis Baker (Acari: Tenuipalpidae) Chilean false red mite Ceratitis capitata (Wiedeman) (Diptera: Tephritidae) Mediterranean fruit fly

The PRA considered the likelihood and consequences of introducing these pests and indicated that both of these pests pose a High pest risk potential. Pests with high pest risk potential generally require measures in addition to inspection at the port of entry to mitigate risk (USDA, 2000).



### Risk Management Measures

Monitoring and Oversight

The NPPO of Chile must provide a workplan to APHIS that details the activities 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 SAG in monitoring and auditing implementation of the systems approach and/or any quarantine treatments.

The NPPO of Chile must visit and inspect regi stered 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 pr oduction or packinghouse is not complying with the requirements of the systems approach, no fruit from the place of 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 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.Version 3 February 24, 2010 3 Requirements for places of Production

Registered places of production. Figs and pomegranates must be grown 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 figs and pomegranates must be placed in field cartons or containers that are marked to show the official registration number of the production site. The place of production where the figs and pomegranates were grown must remain identifiable when the fruit leaves the grove, at the packinghouse, and throughout the export process.



### Pest Free Area for Ceratitis capitata

Since the PRA was developed, APHIS has published notice in the Federal Register the United States now recognizes all of the Republic of Ch ile, as free of Mediterranean fruit fly (USDA, 2010). No further mitigations are necessary for Ceratitis capitata since it is no longer considered to be present in Chile.



### 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 national plant protection organization (NPPO) of Chile. To register, the pr oduction site must provide Chile's NPPO with the following information: Grower, exporter, orchard, and production site name, region, township, province, locality, area planted to each fruit, and approximate date of harvest. Registration must be renewed annually.

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. TheVersion 3 February 24, 2010 4 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. Each production site may have only one opportunity per season to qualify as a low prevalence production site, and certification of low prevalence will be valid for one harvest season only. The NPPO of Chile will present a lis t of certified production sites to APHIS.

Production site low prevalence certification will identify problem production sites and prevent shipment of fruit with Brevipalpus chilensis mites from these sites. This mite sampling has been

tested in Chile and found to be successful in id entifying 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. Fruit for export must be packed into new, clean boxes, crates or other packing materials. Fruit must be inspected in Chile at an APHIS-approved inspection site under the direction of APHIS inspectors in coordination with SAG, 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 produced, 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.

A sample of boxes from each consignment must be selected by SAG, which will detect a 6% infestation rate with 95% confidence based on the biometric sample. 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

.

Post harvest processing such as culling damaged fruit and sampling for mites will remove fruit that may contain pests. Culling is a standard procedure to produce quality 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 declar ation stating that “the fruit in the consignment was inspected 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.



### Efficacy of Risk Management Measures

There are several measures available for mitigating the pests of concern from fresh figs and pomegranates from Chile. The measures chosen for risk management on fresh figs andVersion 3 February 24, 2010 5 pomegranates from Chile are summarized in Table 1. Table 2 shows a summary of the systems approach used to mitigate for the mite, Brevipalpus chilensis.

Table 1. Summary of risk management requirements for figs and pomegranates from
Chile. Measure(s) Pests Effi cacy Monitoring and Oversight All pests, but must be used in conjunction with the systems approach. These measures are standard for many export programs and assist in maintaining quality of the

program. Registered Places of
Production All pests, but must be used in conjunction with the systems approach. Places of production are registered to effectively maintain quality control and traceback.

Traceability All pests, but must be used in conjunction with the systems approach. Traceback is effective at removing problem places of production from the systems approach.

Systems Approach Brevipalpus chilensis, but
must be used in conjunction with pest free
area for Ceratitis capitata Measures listed have been effective in the pilot project eliminating B. chilensis from consignments of Chilean grapes (Servicio Agricola y Ganadero, 2002; 2007).

Pest Free Area Ceratitis capitata, but must be used in conjunction with systems approach and standard industry practices for Brevipalpus
chilensis ISPM 22 (IPPC, 2005)

Table 2. Summary of systems approach used for Brevipalpus chilensis Measure(s) Efficacy Production Site Registration Registration of produc tion sites is required on pre-clearance programs to manage production site requirements and control access to the program to only qualified sites. Commercially grown shipments from registered production sites use good agricultural practices to reduce or eliminate pests (FAO, 2005). APHIS pest interception database indicates that commercial shipments are much less likely to have pest interceptions than non-commercial shipments or passenger baggage. Production site registration is part of traceability that allows track back to production sites if pests are found by inspection at the port of arrival to the United States. Production sites with 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 manyVersion 3 February 24, 2010 6 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 Processing After harvest and before packing, a sample of boxes from each consignment must be selected by SAG, which will detect a 6% infestation rate with 95% confidence based on the biometric sample. 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. Phytosanitary certification Requiring a phytosanitary certificate requires the NPPO to inspect the fresh figs and pomegranates for pests. Phytosanitary Inspection at port of entry Inspections are recognized as an important part of a pest management program (Kahn and Mathur 1999). Trained inspectors can recognize infestations of mites and the damage they cause to the fruits which would allow detection of these pests in some cases (CABI, 2006; NAPPO, 1998; USDA, 1982; USDA, 2004b; Whittle, 1986)



### Summary

APHIS concludes that commercial shipments of figs and pomegranates that originate from Chile may safely be imported into the continental United States without the risk of introducing Brevipalpus chilensis and Ceratitis capitata using a combination of the mitigations listed above.

The pilot programs using the same systems approach for Chilean grapes did not intercept any of the quarantine pests listed in the PRA except Brevipalpus chilensis . Any sites where B. chilensis was detected by the pilot program were removed from the program. Over 1.3 million metric tons of grapes have been imported since 2003, and the number of pest interceptions is very small, with only 5 interceptions of actionable quarantine pests in that time period for Chilean grapes. This systems approach has also been effective for exporting Chilean citrus that are free of mites into the United States (USDA; 2002, 2006).

Authors

Walter Gould Senior Risk Manager, RPM

5. References

CABI. 2006. Crop Protection Compendium, 2006 Edition. CAB International, Wallingford,

UK.Version 3 February 24, 2010 7 IPPC. 2005. International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures. Requirements 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 Society, St. Paul, MN. 213 pp. NAPPO. 1998. Surveillance for quarantine fruit flies (in a portion of a generally infested area). NAPPO Regional Standards for Phytosanitary M easures No. 10. Ottawa: Secretariat of the North American Plant Protection Organization. Servicio Agricola y Ganadero. 2002. Chile Pr e Clearance Program Low Prevalence Pilot Program

for Brevipalpus chilensis B. in Grapes. Servicio Agricola y Ganadero, Gobierno de Chile, Santiago, Chile. 108 pp. Servicio Agricola y Ganadero. 2004. Pest Risk Assessment for the Fig Fresh Fruits Entry ( Ficus

carica L.) from Chile to the USA. Servicio Agricola y Ganadero, Gobierno de Chile, Santiago, Chile. 36 pp. Servicio Agricola y Ganadero. 2007. Chile Pr e Clearance Program Low Prevalence Pilot Program

for Brevipalpus chilensis B. in Grapes. Servicio Agricola y Ganadero, Gobierno de Chile, Santiago, Chile. 25 pp. USDA. 1982. Pests Not Known to Occur in the United States or of Limited Distribution, No. 24: Rice Cutworm. USDA, APHIS, PPQ, Hyattsville, MD. 8 pp. USDA. 2000. Guidelines for Pathway-Initiated Pest Risk Assessments. Version 5.02. USDA, APHIS, PPQ. Riverdale, MD. 30 pp. USDA. 2002. Importation of Fresh Commercial Citrus Fruit: Clementine ( Citrus reticulata

Blanco var. clementine ) Mandarin ( Citrus reticulata Blanco) and Tangerine ( Citrus

reticulata Blanco) from Chile into the United States. A Pathway Initiated Plant Pest Risk Assessment. USDA, APHIS, PPQ, Riverdale, MD. 74pp.USDA. 2004b. Agricultural Quarantine Inspection Monitoring (AQIM) Handbook. USDAAPHIS, PPQ; http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppq/manuals/port/AQIM_Chapters.htm [accessed July 2009]. USDA. 2006. Importation of Fresh Commercial Sweet Orange ( Citrus sinensis [L.] Osbeck) and Grapefruit ( Citrus x paradisi Macfad.) fruit from Chile into the United States. A Pathway-Initiated Plant Pest Risk Analysis . USDA, APHIS, PPQ, CPHST, Raleigh, NC. 61 pp. USDA. 2009. Importation of Fresh Fruits of Pomegranate ( Punica granatum ) and Fig ( Ficus

carica ) from Chile into the Continental United States. A Qualitative, Pathway-initiated Risk Assessment. Rev. 03. USDA, APHIS, PPQ, Riverdale, MD. 60 pp.

USDA. 2010. Docket No. APHIS-2009-0082. Determin ation of Pest-Free Areas in the Republic of Chile; Request for Comments. Federal Register. http://www.thefederalregister.com/d.p/2010-02-01-2010-2009 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, APHIS, PPQ. Hyattsville, MD. 15 pp.