California’s citrus industry is set to resume exports to the Chinese market, after the USDA's Animal Plant Health Inspection Service reached a new supplementary agreement with China's phytosanitary regulatory agency, according to California Citrus Mutual.
Under the terms of the agreement, Californian growers and marketers will have to meet a series of requirements before their fruit is cleared for export, including skirt pruning, pre-harvest treatments, and a packinghouse inspection.Chinese technical officers will visit California during the first year of the programme’s implementation, to ensure these requirements are being met.
China closed it borders to California citrus in April 2013, citing incidences of phytophthora syringae (‘brown rot’) in several shipments of oranges during the previous season. China was a 2.5m carton market for US grown citrus in 2012.
