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

## Commodity Import Evaluation Document (CIED) 

### Count **r y of**  **Origin** : Republic of South Africa 

### Date **of Request** : 04/20/20 11 

### Commodity **: citrus**  **Scientific name :**  **S pp.**  **i n the Rutaceae**  **Common name (s**  **)** : citrus

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### South Africa **Citrus: access using U.S. dom estic requirem**  **ents for C**  **itrus Black S**  **pot .**  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 (APHI S) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to change U . S . requirement s for fresh fruit of Citrus spp. The change would allow the importation of Citrus spp. from Citrus Black Spot (CBS) infec ted areas into the United States under the same restriction s 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 . C BS , a disease cause d by Guignardia citricarpa Kiely , was reported for the first time in the U . S . o n 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 epidemiologicall y significant as a pathway for the introduction of Guignardia citricarpa (USDA. 2010 ) . APHI S (2012 ) establish ed the following restrictions on the interstate mo ve ment of regulated articles from quarantined and regulated CBS infested areas :2

a. Fruit must b e 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 com pliance 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 S tandards (IPPC. 2005), domestic phy tosanitary requirements should be equivalent to and no mo re 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 . restriction s for the interstate movement of c itrus 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 APH IS - 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 millio n 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 packin g house registered with the South African NPPO .3

 Fruit must be accompanied by a Phy tosanitary C ertificate issued by the South African NPPO .  The Phytodanitary C ertificate must be present on both the paperwork accompanying the shipment and on the containers in which the fruit is packed.

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### __**X ___ APPROVED** 

**Conditions of Entry :**  

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

**_____ DISA**  **P PROVED** 

**Justification** José R . Hernández Ph.D. July 20 , 2012

___________________________ _________________ **Signature (name)**  **Date**

**References:** APHI S. 2012. FEDERAL ORDER . Quarantine for Guignardia citricarpa Kiely , Causal Agent of Citrus Black Spot (CBS) , DA - 201 2 - 09. 6 pp. IPPC. 2005. Guidelines for the determination and recognition of equivalence of phyt osanitary measures ISPM 24. International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures, 285 - 291. USDA. 20 10 . 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 Anal ys is L aboratory , Raleigh, NC, USA. 34 pp.