A mission of specialists in agricultural health from the Department of Agriculture of Malaysia is in the country to discuss with their counterparts of the National Service of Agrarian Health (Senasa) the access of Peruvian fresh fruit, such as avocado Hass, blueberries, grape, and citrus fruits to that territory.
The technical observation will last a week. The mission will visit three Peruvian regions: Lima, Ica and La Libertad to check the actions carried out by Senasa in the fields of production, packing and phytosanitary certification system for the export of plant products.
At the end of the visit, the Department of Agriculture of Malaysia will have evidence for the conclusion of the pest risk analysis and the establishment of requirements.
The process began in 2012 with a Technical Report of Hass avocado and citrus crops. The Technical Report on blueberries was submitted in 2016.
With these documents, the Malaysian Department of Agriculture initiated the pest risk analysis (PRA) studies to establish the phytosanitary regulations that Peruvian exporters must comply with in order to enter these products into Malaysia.
Malaysia is a market composed of 28.7 million inhabitants who occupy an area of 329,847 square kilometers, smaller than the Loreto region.
Ban on grapes
The access of fresh grapes to this market was suspended in 2017, after it was associated with the Mycrociclus ulei fungus.
However, Senasa clarified that this plague was only located in the Peruvian jungle, which is associated with rubber trees, and that the Peruvian export grapes are grown on the Peruvian coast, which lies kilometers away from the jungle and is protected by natural barriers.
More health agreements
According to Minister Gustavo Mostajo, this year Peru plans to reach sanitary agreements with Thailand, the Philippines, Japan, the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, India, China, Colombia, and Korea for the entry of various Peruvian agro-export products.
Senasa currently inspects 400 private premises dedicated to agricultural exports. The top 10 products amount to 1,550,000 tons.
Source: andina.pe