The United States department of Agriculture (USDA) has amended regulations for the importation of all commercially grown varieties of Japanese apples to allow them access under the same conditions as those laid out for the Fuji variety.
“We have determined that the risk associated with allowing other varieties of Malus domestica apples `all commercially grown Japanese varieties` from Japan into the United States is the same that is posed by Fuji variety apples.” wrote the USDA in the 22 October edition of the Federal Report.
The regulations require apples from Japan to be cold treated and then fumigated under the supervision of an Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service official to prevent the incursion of the peach fruit moth, the yellow peach moth and the fruit tree spider mite.
The amendment was made following the preparation and release of a Commodity Impact Evaluation Document. The USDA then solicited comments from relevant parties.
One submitter stated the change to regulations was unreasonable as Japan continues to restrict apples from the US, requiring separate testing for treatment efficacy for each variety of those fruits, without a scientific basis for doing so.
The document stated that volumes of the apple varieties affected by the new regulations were ‘insignificant’.
“Allowing imports of all varieties of M domestica apples from Japan into the US is expected to have minimal economic impact on US entities, large or small.
“Although the Fuji apple is the most common variety grown in Japan, it constituted only 0.1 per cent of US apple imports in 2008. The importation of other M domestica varieties is expected to change the quantity of apple imports from Japan only minimally,” the USDA stated in the register.
