USDA moves to allow banana imports from Philippines
In a statement on its web site on January 28, the USDA said it is “proposing to amend the regulations concerning the importation of fruits and vegetables” to allow the importation of fresh bananas from the Philippines” into these markets. The US farm regulator added comments on the proposal would be accepted until the end of March. The USDA said about 4.1 million metric tons (MT) of bananas are currently imported into the US annually. In 2011 Hawaii’s banana harvest totalled about 7,900 MT compared to US imports of about 4.1 million MT.
The USDA said the quantity of bananas recently imported into the US mainland from the Philippines “was expected to be relatively insignificant, equivalent to about 0.05 percent of US imports from other countries.” The USDA proposal said it sees consumers in Hawaii and US territories benefiting from the additional source of fresh bananas. Likewise, the agency said that its attached unit, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (Aphis), “does not expect the proposed rule to have a significant economic impact on small entities.”
The agency said that based on the recommendations of a risk management document, the importation of bananas from the Philippines into these territories could be allowed “only if they are produced in accordance with a systems approach.”
“The systems approach we are proposing would require: registration, monitoring and oversight of places of production; trapping for Bactrocera spp. fruit flies to establish low-prevalence places of production; covering bananas with pesticide bags during the growing season; harvesting only of hard green bananas; requirements for culling, safeguarding, and identifying the fruit; and, inspection by the NPPO of the Philippines for quarantine pests.”
The USDA added that the bananas from the Philippines “would also be required to be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate with an additional declaration stating that the bananas were grown, packed and inspected in accordance with the proposed requirements.”
Source: businessmirror.com.ph
