The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has proposed updates to its regulations, to allow Hass avocados from Colombia to be imported into the continental US.
To be eligible for import, the avocados would need to be produced under a systems approach and be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate to ensure they can be safely imported while still protecting US plant health.
At the request of the Colombian government, APHIS has prepared a pest risk assessment and risk management document that identifies four pests that are considered high or medium concern, if left unmitigated.
These concerns will be addressed by the systems approach, which includes requirements such as imports coming through commercial shipments, and production locations and packing houses being registered, pest-free, and following specific sanitation, monitoring and pest control practices.
In addition, shipments must be inspected by Colombian plant health officials for quarantine pests, with all shipments having a phytosanitary certificate with an Additional Declaration stating they were produced under these conditions.
