Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2008/11/07/E8-26612/importation-of-longan-from-taiwan
Timestamp: 2018-07-23 14:32:46
Document Index: 69406024

Matched Legal Cases: ['§\u2009319', '§\u2009305', '§\u2009305', '§\u2009305', '§\u2009305', '§\u2009319', 'art 305', '§\u2009319']

A Proposed Rule by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service on 11/07/2008
66200-66205 (6 pages)
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/E8-26612 https://www.federalregister.gov/d/E8-26612
Start Preamble Start Printed Page 66200
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov/​fdmspublic/​component/​main?​main=​DocketDetail&​d=​APHIS-2007-0161 to submit or view comments and to view supporting and related materials available electronically.
Only commercial consignments of longan would be allowed to be imported from Taiwan. This condition would reduce the likelihood that longan will introduce injurious plant pests into the continental United States. Produce grown commercially is less likely to be infested with plant pests than noncommercial consignments. Noncommercial consignments are more prone to infestations because the Start Printed Page 66201commodity is often ripe to overripe, could be of a variety with unknown susceptibility to pests, and is often grown with little or no pest control. Commercial consignments, as defined in § 319.56-2, are consignments that an inspector identifies as having been imported for sale and distribution. Such identification is based on a variety of indicators, including, but not limited to: Quantity of produce, type of packaging, identification of grower or packinghouse on the packaging, and documents consigning the fruits or vegetables to a wholesaler or retailer.
We would require that the longan be subjected to cold treatment for melon fruit fly, oriental fruit fly, and litchi fruit borer using proposed APHIS treatment schedule T107-h, which would provide two options for conducting the cold treatment: An option in which the fruit is held at 33.8 °F or below for 17 days, and an option in which the fruit is held at 34.5 °F or below for 20 days.
This condition, in conjunction with other safeguards that would be required for longan from Taiwan, would reduce the likelihood that longan would introduce injurious plant pests into the continental United States. The proposed cold treatment schedule, conducted in accordance with § 305.15, has been determined to be an effective quarantine treatment for melon fruit fly, oriental fruit fly, and litchi fruit borer in longan.
The schedule listed for cold treatment T107-h in § 305.16 currently provides three options for conducting the cold treatment: An option in which the fruit is held at 33.4 °F or below for 13 days, an option in which the fruit is held at 33.8 °F or below for 15 days, and an option in which the fruit is held at 34.5 °F or below for 18 days. However, a review [1] by APHIS has determined that there is not adequate scientific justification to conclude that the pests for which T107-h is an approved treatment will be neutralized if the option of holding the fruit at 33.4 °F or below for 13 days is used. Accordingly, we are proposing to remove this option from the cold treatment schedule in T107-h. Additionally, based on the recommendations in the review, we would extend by 2 days the treatment times required in the other options available for this cold treatment. Thus, the longan would have to be treated at 33.8 °F for 17 days or 34.5 °F for 20 days. For the same reasons, we are also proposing to revise the schedule listed for cold treatment T107-j in § 305.16 to replace the 13-day treatment option with a 15-day treatment option. However, we are not revising the 18-day treatment option for this schedule because T107-j is approved only for oriental fruit fly and the 18-day treatment option has been shown to be effective at neutralizing that pest.
To reflect our proposed addition of fresh longan with stems from Taiwan to the list of fruits and vegetables whose importation into the United States is authorized, we would add an entry for longan from Taiwan to the table of commodities enterable from foreign localities in § 305.2(h)(2)(i) of the phytosanitary treatments regulations, and we would designate proposed cold treatment schedule T107-h as an approved treatment for melon fruit fly, oriental fruit fly, and litchi fruit borer in longan from Taiwan. In addition, we would amend the table in § 319.56-13(a) of the regulations to add an entry for longan under Taiwan, indicating in that entry that the longan would be prohibited from entering Florida, could be imported in commercial shipments only, and would have to be treated with an approved treatment listed in 7 CFR part 305. Finally, we would add a new paragraph to § 319.56-13(b) to reflect the proposed requirement that each shipment of longan be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate issued by the NPPO of Taiwan with an additional declaration stating that the longan are free of yellow peach moth, macadamia nut borer, and cashew leaf thrips.
For this proposed rule, we have prepared an economic analysis. The analysis, which is set out below, provides a cost-benefit analysis, as required by Executive Order 12866, as well as an initial regulatory flexibility analysis that considers the potential economic effects of this proposed rule on small entities, as required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act. Based on the information we have, there is no reason to conclude that adoption of this proposed rule would result in any significant economic effect on a substantial number of small entities. However, we do not currently have all of the data necessary for a comprehensive analysis of the effects of this proposed rule on small entities. Therefore, we are inviting comments on potential effects. In particular, we are Start Printed Page 66202interested in determining the number and kind of small entities that may incur benefits or costs from the implementation of this proposed rule.
In 1996, 91 percent of Florida's longan production was located in Miami-Dade County, and the remaining acreage was located in neighboring counties.[2] There are between 20 and 40 different longan cultivars world-wide, but 99 percent of the Floridian acreage is planted with the “Kohala” cultivar.[3] The harvest season can last from July to September, but mainly occurs in August.
In 2002, the Florida Agricultural Market Research Center, in combination with the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS), published an agricultural land study. This report states that, in 2001, crop acreage for longan in Miami-Dade County totaled 495 acres, including non-bearing acreage.[4] Latest estimates are around 850 acres, including acreage that has been planted in Palm Beach County and Lee County.[5] Revenue reports from 1998 show that 275 acres of the longan fruit crop sold at freight-on-board prices of $3.60 per pound yielding a total value of $8.9 million.[6] Ninety-five percent of the longan crop was sold outside Miami-Dade County. While the IFAS research does not report the destination of longan leaving the county, demand for the longan as a minor tropical fruit is rather small and geographically limited, with most of the crop sold on the local fresh market.[7] We are unaware of large-scale commercial shipments of longan by Florida producers. Additionally, we note that the proposed rule would not allow the importation or distribution of commercial shipments of longan with stems from Taiwan into Florida.
In 2006, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), in cooperation with the Hawaiian Department of Agriculture, reported that there were 65 farms in Hawaii that grew longan. It is possible that these farms grew more than one type of fruit. These Hawaiian farms had a total of 155 acres of longan, 75 of which were harvested. There is no commercial production for canned, dried, or processed longan, as 99 percent of the fruit is sold fresh. Utilized production totaled 190,000 pounds, which was valued at $657,000. Utilized production reported by NASS may be understated by as much as one-fourth because some growers did not participate in the NASS surveys.[8] A 2007 report shows that the value of sales for longan produced in Hawaii has steadily increased from $147,000 in 2002 to $657,000 in 2006. Longan is now the second most important tropical specialty fruit after mango.[9] The total value of sales of tropical specialty fruits in Hawaii equaled $2.6 million in 2006.
With regard to the distribution of Hawaiian longan, it is estimated that about 40 percent is irradiated and moved to the mainland for sale in metropolitan areas such as Chicago, IL, and San Francisco, CA. The remaining longan is sold within the State at resort hotels, at farmers' markets, or in Honolulu's Chinatown.[10] Hawaii's production and sales are a small but Start Printed Page 66203growing part of the fresh longan industry in the United States.
Taiwan is a major producer of longan.[11] In 2002, Taiwan produced over 242 million pounds of longan, on over 29,000 acres.[12] Most of the fresh longan is domestically consumed. A small amount of longan is exported to other countries, including the United States, as dried, preserved, canned, or fresh. The main cultivar in Taiwan is the “Fengko.”
Thailand and China are the frontrunners in longan production and trade. In 2003, Thailand produced around 875 million pounds of longan on over 1.9 million acres.[13] Of Thailand's total longan exports, about 70 percent is shipped fresh to Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and China.[14] China has an even larger longan industry. In 2000, China produced 1.3 million pounds on 1.1 million acres.[15] APHIS regulations allow both Thailand and China to export fresh longan fruit with stems into the United States, excluding Florida, under certain conditions.
The Taiwanese Government estimates that fresh longan exports to the United States would total around 397,000 pounds.[16] Because of data aggregation, we are unable to more fully assess the relative size of projected fresh longan imports from Taiwan, or compare them to the quantities of fresh longan either imported from Thailand and China or produced domestically. We welcome information that would allow us to better understand the U.S. fresh longan market.
Entities affected by this proposed rule are likely to be small, based on SBA size standards as related to NAICS. Businesses most likely to be affected by this rule would be longan producers, for which the SBA small-entity standard is annual sales of not more than $750,000. Production of longan is classified under NAICS code 111339 (Other Non-Citrus Fruit Farming). In 2006, NASS reported that there were 65 farms in Hawaii that grew longan, and this number has not changed since 2003.[17] The Tropical Fruit Growers of South Florida lists 25 members that sell longan from their farms.[18] A University of Florida publication from 2004 also lists four nurseries selling longan plants.[19] The 2002 Census of Agriculture shows that approximately 95 percent of fruit and nut tree farmers (NAICS 1113) in the United States had sales that year of under $500,000. It is reasonable to assume that most, if not all, longan producers in the United States are small entities.
The proposed rule would not result in U.S. entities being subject to reporting, recordkeeping, or other compliance requirements other than, for importers, the records normally required of brokerage firms and other import businesses. Phytosanitary certification and fulfillment of related import conditions would be the responsibility of the exporting party and are discussed below under the heading “Paperwork Reduction Act.” Start Printed Page 66204
(i) * * * Start Printed Page 66205
T107-h 33.8 or below 17 days.
2. University of Florida, IFAS Extension, “Florida Crop/Pest Management Profile: Lychee and Longan.” Mark Mossler and O. Norman Nesheim. March 2002. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/​pdffiles/​PI/​PI05000.pdf.
3. University of Florida, IFAS Extension. “Longan Growing in the Florida Home Landscape.” Jonathan Crane, Carlos Balerdi, Steven Sargent, Ian Maguire. pg. 1. Revised Sept. 2005. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/​pdffiles/​MG/​MG04900.pdf.
4. Florida Agricultural Market Research Center, IFAS. Miami-Dade Agricultural Land Retention Study. Summary and Recommendations Vol. 1 Table 13 “Summary of Miami-Dade Tropical Fruit Acreage, 1990-2001.” p. 40. April 2002. http://www.agmarketing.ifas.ufl.edu/​dlfiles/​Summary.pdf.
6. Florida Agricultural Market Research Center, IFAS. Miami-Dade Agricultural Land Retention Study. Economic Issues Vol 3. p. 4. April 2002. http://www.agmarketing.ifas.ufl.edu/​dlfiles/​DadeAgLandRetentionAppendixVolumeB.pdf.
7. Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Charles H. Bronson. Florida Agriculture Statistical Directory. pg. 31. April 1, 2007. http://www.florida-agriculture.com/​pubs/​pubform/​pdf/​Florida_​Agricultural_​Statistical_​Directory.pdf.
9. National Agricultural Statistics Service, Department of Agriculture State of Hawaii. “Hawaii Tropical Specialty Fruits.” Sept. 4, 2007. http://www.nass.usda.gov/​hi/​fruit/​tropfrt.pdf. Includes atemoya, breadfruit, caimito, canistel, cherimoya, durian, jaboticaba, jackfruit, langsat, longan, loquat, litchi, mango, mangosteen, persimmon, poha, rambutan, rollina, sapodilla, soursop, starfruit, and white sapote.
13. Office of Agricultural Economics. Agricultural Statistics of Thailand 2003. Fruit Trees, Table 72: Longan. http://www.oae.go.th/​statistic/​yearbook/​2003/​indexe.html.
17. National Agricultural Statistics Service, Department of Agriculture State of Hawaii. “Hawaii Tropical Specialty Fruits.” Sept 4, 2007. http://www.nass.usda.gov/​hi/​fruit/​tropfrt.pdf.
18. Tropical Fruit Growers of South Florida. Buy Fruit and Trees—TFGSF Directory of Members. 2007. http://www.tropicalfruitgrowers.com/​buy.htm#longan.
19. University of Florida. IFAS Extension. “Nursery List for Tropical Fruit Trees.” Andrew Rose and Jeanne Ethridge. pg. 21, Table 44. Revised Oct. 2004. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/​pdffiles/​CN/​CN00800.pdf.