United States Department of Agriculture

Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

Plant Protection and Quarantine

Commodity Import Evaluation Document (CIED)

Country of Origin: Republic of South Africa Date of Request: 04/20/2011

Commodity: citrus

Scientific name: Spp. in the Rutaceae Common name(s): citrus

________________________________________________________________________

South Africa Citrus: access using U.S. domestic requirements for Citrus Black 

Spot.

The South African Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), Directorate Plant 

Health (DPH), requested in April 2011 to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service 

(APHIS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to change U.S. requirements 

for fresh fruit of Citrus spp. The change would allow the importation of Citrus spp. from Citrus 

Black Spot (CBS) infected areas into the United States under the same restrictions imposed for 

interstate movement of Citrus spp. from areas where CBS is known to occur to areas free of 

CBS.

Currently Citrus spp. is allowed from South Africa into the United States only from CBS pest 

free areas (PFAs) recognized by APHIS. DAFF also requested that APHIS continue allowing 

export of citrus from the PFAs into the U.S. without CBS-related restrictions. 

CBS, a disease caused by Guignardia citricarpa Kiely, was reported for the first time in the U.S.

on April 7, 2010, on citrus fruit from a commercial Valencia orange grove in Collier County, 

Florida. APHIS then assessed Citrus spp. fruit as a pathway of the disease and concluded that 

citrus fruit is not epidemiologically significant as a pathway for the introduction of Guignardia 

citricarpa (USDA. 2010). APHIS (2012) established the following restrictions on the interstate 

movement of regulated articles from quarantined and regulated CBS infested areas:
2

a. Fruit must be washed, brushed, disinfested, treated, and waxed at the packing house, prior to 

shipment, using an APHIS-approved packing house procedure located on the APHIS website: 

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/plant_pest_info/citrus/black_spot.shtml; and 

b. Fruit must be practically free of leaves, stems, or other regulated plant material, except that stems 

less than 1-inch may be attached to fruit but cannot have attached leaves; and 

c. Fruit must be packed in a packing house operating under a signed compliance agreement with 

APHIS; and 

d. Fruit must be accompanied by a certificate issued by an inspector or by persons operating under a 

compliance agreement; and 

e. The certificate must be present on both the paperwork accompanying the shipment and on the

containers in which the fruit is packed.

According to International Standards (IPPC. 2005), domestic phytosanitary requirements should 

be equivalent to and no more stringent than import requirements (non-discrimination principle).

Recommendation:

Change the current requirements for the importation of Citrus spp. from South Africa to allow 

the importation of Citrus spp. from areas of South Africa where CBS is known to occur. Such 

importations would be made into the United States under the same or equivalent U.S. restrictions

for the interstate movement of citrus fruit from areas where CBS is known to occur to areas 

where CBS is not known to occur, as follow:

 Fruit must be washed, brushed, disinfested, treated, and waxed at the packing house, prior to 

shipment to the U.S., using the following APHIS-approved or equivalent treatments:

1- Surface disinfested with at least one of the following treatments:

a) Thoroughly wet the fruit for at least 2 minutes with a solution containing 200 parts per 

million sodium hypochlorite. Maintain the solution at a pH of 6.0 to 7.5. Treatment 

must be applied in accordance with label directions. 

b) Thoroughly wet the fruit with a solution containing sodium o-phenyl phenate at a 

concentration of 1.86 to 2.0 percent of the total solution. If the solution has sufficient 

soap or detergent to cause a visible foaming action, wet for 45 seconds. If the solution 

does not contain sufficient soap to cause a visible foaming action, wet for 1 minute. 

Treatment must be applied in accordance with label directions. 

c) Thoroughly wet the fruit with a solution of 85 parts per million peroxyacetic acid (PAA) 

for at least 1 minute. Treatment must be applied in accordance with label directions.

2- Treated with label rates of imazalil and/or thiabendazole at the time of packing.

 Fruit must be practically free of leaves, stems, or other regulated plant material, except that 

stems less than 1-inch may be attached to fruit but cannot have attached leaves.

 Fruit must be packed in a packing house registered with the South African NPPO.
3

 Fruit must be accompanied by a Phytosanitary Certificate issued by the South African 

NPPO. 

 The Phytodanitary Certificate must be present on both the paperwork accompanying the 

shipment and on the containers in which the fruit is packed.

________________________________________________________________________

__X___ APPROVED

Conditions of Entry: 

Must meet requirements of DA-2012-09 (APHIS. 2012)

_____ DISAPPROVED

Justification

José R. Hernández Ph.D. July 20, 2012

___________________________ _________________

Signature (name) Date 

References:

APHIS. 2012. FEDERAL ORDER. Quarantine for Guignardia citricarpa Kiely, Causal Agent 

of Citrus Black Spot (CBS), DA-2012-09. 6 pp.

IPPC. 2005. Guidelines for the determination and recognition of equivalence of phytosanitary

measures ISPM 24. International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures, 285-291.

USDA. 2010. Risk assessment of Citrus spp. fruit as a pathway for the introduction of 

Guagnardia citricarpa Kiely, the organism that causes Citrus Black Spot disease. Center for 

Plant Health Science and technology, Plant Epidemiology and Risk Analysis Laboratory,

Raleigh, NC, USA. 34 pp.