Ecuador is visited by US officials to facilitate fruit and vegetable exports

Fruit flies are considered the major pest for horticultural crops distributed worldwide because of the direct damage they cause to the crops. As a result, they have become the main phytosanitary barrier to global trade, as many importing countries impose restrictions on fruits from areas where the pest is present.

 

In order to reduce the populations of fruit fly and establish areas that are free of this pest and areas that have a low prevalence of it, AGROCALIDAD has established phytosanitary measures to control it. Resolution DAJ-20141A1-0201.0090 of April 17, 2014, established the National Fruit Fly Management Project; a project that was implemented based on the formation of provincial and national work teams that conduct monitoring, integrated pest management, and training for fruit and vegetable producers, among other activities, through 5 components: Diagnosis and Vigilance; Quarantine, Integrated Pest Management in the Field, Analysis, and Communication/Diffusion of information.

The visit of the delegation of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) took place from August 29 to September 2 this year. The delegation conducted tours with technicians from AGROCALIDAD in the provinces of Imbabura, Pichincha, Cotopaxi, Tungurahua, Morona Santiago, Guayas and Santa Elena, where they checked the monitoring system for fruit flies in the production sites of pepper, tree tomato, cape gooseberry, blackberry and pitahaya. In addition, they verified the certification process in the collection centres for these products, and complemented the tour with a visit to the Mariscal Sucre International Airport, and the seaport of Guayaquil.

 

This visit complied with the established agenda, and the APHIS stated that the country had an export potential and was highly reliable. This achievement reflects the hard work that AGROCALIDAD, an agency that is committed to the export sector in alignment with the development goals of Ecuador, has performed.

 

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