According to the statement by the Estación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Colombres (EEAOC) as of August the sanitary barriers imposed by the United States, through which the Tucuman lemons were prevented from entering the market
will fall.
This is because under the frame work of the Pathology Congress of Manaus (Brazil), the results of a study done between the EEAOC and IAPAR (Agronomic Institute of Paraná, Brazil), which determines that the so-called Variegated Chlorosis of Citrus (CVC) is not transmitted by seed, will be presented.
This information is supplemented with recent steps taken by a delegation of
national and local officials, as well as entrepreneurs, who held meetings with American farmers in order to curb the lobby against the raw material that distinguishes the province. It is worth mentioning that Argentina is the largest producer of lemon in the world and Tucumán leads this production with 1.3 million tons annually, according to data provided by the EEAOC.
"In 2000 our lemons could enter, until there was a problem and a group of producers in California presented this situation before a court. That court ruled the suspension of exports from Argentina to the United States, claiming that there were doubts about the safety of the plant material that was being introduced," said
Roberto Sánchez Loria, president of Tucuman Citrus Association (ATC).
Following the statements of U.S. producers it was decided to remake the risk mitigation plan. "We started to work in 2006 and within that plan, which we are now in its final stage, all the requirements that APHIS (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, SENASA Argentine equivalent body), has considered necessary to ensure the sanitary quality of the product so as to enter, have been done. The last hurdle was that APHIS questioned the possible presence of CVC, disease that currently exists in the NOA," said the entrepreneur. In this regard, SENASA conducted a study on 6,400 plants from Jujuy, Catamarca, Salta and Tucuman not finding positive samples for CVC.
Source: Elsigloweb