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



## Risk Management Document


# Importation of Banana, **Musa spp.,**  **as Mature**  **, Hard Green Fruit from**  **the Philippines to the**

**Continental United States**

**Novem ber**  **16 , 20**  **1 0** 

**Plant Health Programs (PHP) Regulations, Permi**  **ts and Manuals (**  **RPM )**  **Contact Person: Meredith Jones** Vers ion 1 November 16, 2010 2 

### Introduction A Pest Risk Assessment (PRA) was submitted by the Philippine Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service ( APHI S ) in December 2005 in support of a marke t access request for Philippine green bananas to the continental United States (BPI , 2005)

. This pest risk assessment was originally prepared for Dole Philippines, Inc., Dole Asia Ltd., Makati, Philippines. APHI S r eviewed the relevant literature and pest interception records and revised the PRA (USDA, 200 9 ) . The APHI S

- revised PRA identified 1 4 quarantine pe sts rated medium or high risk that are likely

to follow the pathway of fresh green bananas from the Philippines :

**Taxa Scientific name**  **Pest risk pote**  **ntial** Diptera: Tephritidae Bactrocera musae (Tryon) High Bactrocera occipitalis (Bezzi) High Bactrocera philippinensis Drew and Hancock High Coleoptera: Cerambycidae Sybra alternans Wiedemann Medium Hempitera: Coccidae Ceroplastes rubens Maskell Med ium Coccus viridis (Green) Medium Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae Dysmicoccus neobrevipes Beardsley Medium Geococcus coffeae Green Medium Maconellicoccus hirsutus (Green) Medium Planococcus lilacinus (Cockerell) Medium Planococcus minor (Maskell) Med ium Pseudococcus cryptus Hempel Medium Rastrococcus invadens Williams Medium Rastrococcus spinosus (Robinson) Medium

Pests that have medium or high pest risk potential may require measures in addition to port
- of

entry inspection to mitigate risk (USDA, 2000)

. The PRA rated three species of fruit flies as high risk , while o ne longhorned beetle, two soft scales and eight species of mealy bugs are rated medium risk. 

### Industry **Standard Practices** The following list of industry standard practices fo r banana production in the Philippines w a s submitted to APHI S by

BPI(BPI , 2008). BPIindicated that these are standard industry practices, and that they will mitigate all risk from pests in green bananas from the Philippines. These practices include the following: a) Use of tissue culture (tc) seedlings in new plantings, as they are relatively free from insect pests.Vers ion 1 November 16, 2010 3 b ) Excellent weed management to limit proliferation of insect pests. c) Pseudostem sanitation to eliminate refuse and breeding sites of in sect pests. d) Fruit obstruction removal (FOR) to prevent fruit damage as well as eliminate bridges that may be utilized by

the pests to infest the fruit

. e) Insecticidal bud injection to kill the banana flower thrips. f ) Insecticide spray

on the pseudost em to eliminate insect pests i.e., mealy bugs, aphids, etc. g) Regular spraying of bunches with insecticide to prevent mealy bugs and scale insects from colonizing the developing fruit bunch. This spray would eliminate fruit flies if present. h) Chlorpy

rifos

- impregn ated polyethylene (PE) bags used to cover the frui t bunches after bunch spray to further prevent mealy

bug, scale and fruit fly

insect infestation on the fruit. i) Additional c hlorpy

rifos

- impregnated PE material (in a form of "strip" or "square") in stalled on the fruit as additional control against insect pests when needed. j) Bun ches for harvest identified/tagged one (1) day before harvest in an ope ration called "pre

calibration." Bunches, in the process, are inspected for the presen ce of insect pes t; b unches with mealy

bugs, scales and other insect damages are discarded during harvest. k) Upon arrival of the fruit at the packing plant, fruit bunches are sprayed with high pressure water to eliminate any

mealy bug infestation. 1) While bunches ar e wait ing to be de

- handed, the fruit inspe ctor in the packing plant check s for insect damage, particularly mealy bug infestation, on individual bunches. m) During de

- handing, individual hands are thorough ly inspected for possible mealy bug infestation and any

othe r evidence of insect damage. n) After de

- handing, individual hands are thoroughly cleaned with soap and water and further brushed with high

- pressure water to eliminate infestation of mealy bugs. o) The individual hands are again inspected to conf i rm freedom from mealy

bugs and other insects during weighing and immediately before packing inside the box. p) Only unused pallets , and those that are clean, dry and free from trash, soil, weed seeds and non

weed contaminants , are used during shipping

. q) Fruits rema in in the wharf no longer than 3 hours before loading in the vessel or into cold stora ge. Wharf areas are kept clean and are located away from population areas and farms. Wharf is regularly

cleaned to prevent contamination of fruit for export

. r) Vessels are cleaned with a recommended disinfectant before loading. Some vessels use ozone for disinfection between loads. Some of these practices are viewed as necessary by APHI S and will be included as required risk mitigations. APHI S will also requ ire some a dditional mitigations that are not on this list. 

### Risk Management **Measures -**  **Sy stems approach for green bananas**  All of the following measures are required for the systems approach for green bananas. **Monitoring and Oversight .**  The NPPO of the Philippines must provide a workplan to APHI S that details the activities that the NPPO of Philippines will, subject to APHI S’ approval of the workplan, carry

out to meet the requirements of the systems approach and the specific quarantine treatments that may

be requi red

. The NPPO of the Philippines must visit and inspect registered places of production , starting when fruit bags are emplaced and continuing until the end of the shipping season, to verify that the growers are complying with the requirements of the sys tems approach , including followingVers ion 1 November 16, 2010 4 pest management guidelines and fruit bagging

. Inaddition to conducting inspections at the packinghouses, the NPPO of the Philippines must monitor packinghouse operations to verify that the packinghouses are complying with the requirements of the sy stems approach. If the NPPO of the Philippines determines that a place of production or packinghouse is not complying with the requirements of the systems approach, no fruit from the place of production or packinghouse wil l be eligible for export to the United States until the NPPO of the Philippines conduct s an investigation and appropriate remedial actions have been implemented

. The NPPO of the Philippines must review and maintain all forms and documents related to expo rt program activities in places of production and packinghouses for at least 1 year , and pro vide them to APHI S for review upon request. **Registered places of production .**  Bananas must be grown in places of production that are registered with the NPPO of th e Philippines

. To register, the place of production must provide Philippine s ' NPPO with the following information: Grower, exporter, orchard, and place of production name s , region, township, province, locality , size of area planted to each fruit , and appro ximate date of harvest. Registration must be renewed annually

. The NPPO of the Philippines will certify

that each place of production follows pest control guidelines to reduce regulated pest populations. APHI S may monitor the places of production if nece ssary . Registration of places of production will allow trace back to the place of production if pest problems are found on fruit shipped to the United States. Problem places of production can then be removed from the program until further mitigation meas ures have been taken to reduce pest populations. **Traceability.** Harvested bananas must be placed in field cartons or containers that are marked to show the official registration number of the place of production. The place of production where the bananas were grown must remain identifiable from the time when the fruit leaves the place of production , to the packinghouse, and throughout the export process. Fruit presented for inspection at the United States port of entry must be identified in the shipping documents accompanying each lot of fruit to specify the place or places of production in which the fruit was produced , and the packing house or houses in which the fruit was processed. This identification must be maintained until the fruit is released for entry into the United States.
**P est management program**  **at the place of production including**  **cover ing**  **b ananas with**  **pesticide impregnated bags .**  Each place of production must follow a pest management program specified by

the NPPO to reduce populations o f quarantine pests

. This includes applying pesticides to reduce pest populations and bagging bananas after flower drop with plastic bags impregnated with pesticides

. D uring the growing period when the bag should be covering the fruit, if the bag falls of

f or is torn so that fruit flies can enter, that fruit is no longer eligible for export to the United States

. **Fruit fly population monitoring and management**  **for l ow prevalence**  **places of production.** Vers ion 1 November 16, 2010 5 Several species of Bactrocera, including Bactrocera musa e, B. occipitalis and B. philippinensis, are present in the Philippines and may attack bananas. Bananas , and especially green bananas , are generally considered to be poor hosts to most species of fruit flies ; however , B. m usae is recorded as attacking gr een bananas . L ow prevalence in the place of production will be used as part of a sy stems approach to mitigate the risk from Bactrocera species fruit fl ies

. Procedures for the establishment and maintenance of areas of low pest prevalence must comply with international standards (NAPPO, 2003; IPPC, 2005). Beginning at least 3 months before harvest begins and continuing through the completion of harvest, trapping in the places of banana production for Bactrocera fruit fly species must be conducted with at l east 1 trap per 0.2 km 2 by the NPPO. APHI S

- approved traps baited with APHI S

- approved baits must be used and serviced at least once every

2 weeks. I f more than 2

. 0 FTD (number o f fruit flies per trap per day ) are trapped, pesticide bait treatments (or bait stations) must be applied in the affected place of production in order for the place of production to remain eligible to export bananas . The NPPO must keep records of fruit fly d etections for each trap, update the records each time the traps are checked, and make the records available to APHI S inspectors upon request. The records must be maintained for at least 1 year after harvest. If after two years of export inspections of banana fruit, no Bactrocera spp. larvae have been found in the banana export program, further fruit fly trapping will not be required. **Bananas harvested hard green (no color break or yellow visible**  **) .**  The bananas must be harvested at a mature green state. N one of the bananas harvested for export may be at or past color break (turn ing yellow)

. Damaged fruit may not be harvested for export. **Safeguarding.** Bananas must be safeguarded from exposure to fruit flies from harvest to export, including being packaged so a s to prevent access by fruit flies and other injurious insect pests. **Packinghouses.** Packinghouses must prevent the entry of pests ( i.e., be pest exclusionary packinghouses) with a double

- door entry sy stem and other measure s designed to exclude fruit flies and other pests of quarantine concern. The packinghouse operation s for export of bananas must be m onitored by the NPPO. Bananas intended for United States markets must be properly segregated and labeled from bananas intended for other markets. **Post**
**- harvest processing.**  After harvest , all damaged or diseased fruit must be culled at the packinghouse

. Fruit will be washed with a high pressure water spray , dehanded and washed with soap and water. Fruit for export must be packed into new, clean boxes, crates or other packing materials

. **NPPO Inspection.**  F ruit must be i nspected in the Philippines at an APHI S

- approved inspection site under the direction of BPI inspectors , following post
- harvest processing. A sample of boxes from each consignment must be selected by BPI at a rate to be mutually agreed upon by

BPIand APHI S. The fruit from these boxes must be visually inspected for quarantine pests

. A portion of the fruit being inspected must be cut to detect internally feeding quarantine pests

. If Bactrocera spp. fruit flies are found upon inspection, the export program will be suspended until an investigation has been conducted by APHI S and the NPPO of the Philippines and appropriate mitigations have been implemented. I f other quarantine pests are detected in this inspection, theVers ion 1 November 16, 2010 6 consignment will be rejected from the export program. **Phytosanitary certificate**  **.** Each consignment of fruit must be accompanied by a phy tosanitary certificate issued by

the NPPO of the Philippines that contains an additional declaration stating that “ the fruit in the consignment was grown and packed in accordance with CFR and inspected and found free of quarantine pests ”

. **Port of Entry Inspection.**  Fruit must be inspected at the first United States port of entry by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) inspectors from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

. A sample of boxes from each consignment will be inspected for quarantine pests

. If significant interceptions of quarantine pests occur, APHI S may ask BPIto suspend those places of production pending the result of an investigation by BPI , after which they

may either be removed from the program or required to take remedial measures. 

### Efficacy **of Risk Management Measures**  There are several measures available for mitigating the pests of concern from bananas from the Philippines . The meas ures chosen for risk m anagement on banan a s from the Philippines are summarized in Table 1

. **Table 1**
**. Summary of risk**  **management requirements**  **that are components of a systems approach**  **for bananas**  **fro m**  **the Philippines to the Continental United States**
**. Mea**  **sure(s) Pests**  **Efficacy** Monitoring and Oversight All pests , but must be used in conjunction with other measures as part of a systems approach. These measures are standard for many im port programs and assist in maintaining quality of the program.

Traceabil ity All pests, but must be used in conjunction with other measures as part of a systems approach. Traceability allows track back to places of production if pests are found by inspection at the port of arrival to the United States. Places of p roduction with quarantine pests can be removed from the program. Production Site Registration All pests, but must be used in conjunction with other measures as part of a systems approach. Registration of places of production is required to manage place of production re quirements and restrict access to the program to qualified sites. Commercially grown shipments from registered places of production use good agricultural practices to reduce or eliminate pests (FAO, 2005). APHIS pest interception database indicates that c ommercial shipments are much less likely to have pest interceptions than non

- commercial shipments or passenger baggage. Place of p roduction 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. Places of p roduction with pests of quarantine concern can be removed from the program. Place of production pest management program including bananas covered with pesticide impregnated bags All pests, but must be used in conjunction with other measures as part of a systems approach. Pesticide impregnated bags are industry standard practices in Central and South America production of bananas (Matlock and de la Cruz, 2003; Polidoro et al., 2008; Simmonds, 1966). Th ese bags reduce the number of quarantine pests that may follow the pathway of bananas.Vers ion 1 November 16, 2010 7 **Table 1**
**. Summary of risk**  **management requirements**  **that are components of a systems approach**  **for bananas**  **fro m**  **the Philippines to the Continental United States**
**. Mea**  **sure(s) Pests**  **Efficacy** Fruit fly population monitoring and management for l ow prevalence place of production

. Bactrocera spp. fruit flies Fruit fly trapping and management is a key compon ent of low

- prevalence systems approaches for many commodities including tomatoes and peppers grown in pest exclusionary structures, and the papaya systems approach from Central and South America ( Title 7, Code of Federal Regulations , 319.56

- 25, 28, 31 and 40)

. Bananas harvested hard green (no color break or yellow visible). Bactrocera spp. fruit flies Harvesting bananas at a hard green stage is a standard industry practice for banana production in Central and South America, Hawaii, and most of the world. Ripe bananas are much more likely to be infested with Tephritid fruit flies (Armstrong, 1983; 2001; Allwood and Drew, 1996). Safeguarding from pest exposure Bactrocera spp. fruit flies Safeguarding is standard for any import program where the fruit is a host to fruit flies. Most fruits become more susceptible to infestation after harvest and safeguarding prevents infestation , for example tomatoes from various countries and Mexican avocados (Title 7, Code of Federal Regulations , 319.56

- 28 and 30)

. Packi nghouses All pests, but specifically for Bactrocera spp. fruit flies. Pest exclusionary packinghouses are a standard APHIS requirement for import programs where the fruit is fruit fly host material, for example the Mexican avocado program uses this risk mi tigation ( Title 7, Code of Federal Regulations , 319.56

- 30 ). Postharvest Processing All pests, but must be used in conjunction with other measures as part of a systems approach. Banana postharvest processing includes washing that removes surface pests such as mealybugs, and culling that removes any visible pests and damaged fruit (BPI, 2005). NPPO inspection All pests, but must be used in conjunction with other measures as part of a systems approach. Inspections are recognized as an important part of a pest management program (Kahn and Mathur 1999). Trained inspectors can recognize infestations of pest s and the damage they cause to the fruits , which would allow detection of these pests in some cases (CABI, 2007; NAPPO, 1998; USDA, 1982; USDA, 2004; W hi ttle, 1986) Phytosanitary certification All pests, but must be used in conjunction with other measures as part of a systems approach. Requiring a phytosanitary certificate requires the NPPO to inspect the bananas for pests.
Phytosanitary inspection at po rt of entry All pests, but must be used in conjunction with other measures as part of a systems approach. Inspections are recognized as an important part of a pest management program (Kahn and Mathur 1999). Trained inspectors can recognize infestations of pest s and the damage they cause to the fruits , which would allow detection of these pests in some cases (CABI, 2007; NAPPO, 1998; USDA, 1982; USDA, 2004; W hittle, 1986) 

### Summary
APHI S concludes that commercial shipments of Philippine bananas may safel y be imported into the continental United States without the risk of introducing pests using the combination of the mitigations listed above.Vers ion 1 November 16, 2010 8 Bananas are export ed from Central and South America and Hawaii using m ost of the components described in this sy stems approach for bananas from the Philippines

. Over 3.8 to 4 million metric tons of bananas have been imported into the United States every year from 2003 to 2007 (NASS, 2008). Given the huge amount of fruit imported, the number of pest intercep tions i s very small, with about 1,400 interceptions of actionable quarantine pests in that time period for bananas worldwide ( AQAS

- PestID , 2010 )

. The majority of these interceptions are mealy bugs, scara beid beetles and weevils. The s carabeids and weevils interc epted are not internally feeding on bananas , but are adult hitchhikers. Mealy bugs are external feeders that are readily detected by inspect ion at the port of entry

. APHI S has intercept ed only three of the 14 quarantine pests listed in the PRA ( AQAS

- Pest ID , 2010 ) in commercial cargo in the past five years. Two Coccus viridis , 24 Dysmicoccus neobrevipes and 105 Planococcus minor have been intercepted ; however , the volume of bananas imported has been very

large. Inthe proposed Philippine banana systems a pproach, any places of production with interception s of quarantine pests can be either removed from the program or required to take remedial measures. According to BPI , bananas are currently exported from the Philippines to Japan using part of the sy stem s approach listed here (BPI , 2005) . According to BPI , no quarantine pests have been intercepted using this approach. **Author** Walter Gould , Ph.D. Senior Risk Manager R egulations, P ermits and M anuals **5. References**  Allwood, A.J. and R.A.I . Drew. 1996. Management of Fruit Flies in the Pacific : A regional sy

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