After a 40-year absence, apples and pears from Washington state could soon be arriving on Cuban shores. Representatives from US and Cuban plant health authorities spent several days in June visiting packhouses and orchards in the north-western state. The meetings culminated on June 16 with the signing of a document detailing phytosanitary requirements for exports of Washington's apples and pears to Cuba. The Caribbean island state requires a US federal phytosanitary certificate accompanying every shipment and an additional declaration that the fruit is free of apple maggot.

Price and quality negotiations are under way already with a view to first export sales being finalised later this summer. According to the US department of agriculture, annual sales are likely to total $500,000 in the short term.

Meanwhile, representatives from the Washington Apple Commission reported earlier in June that Colombia has banned imports of Chilean fruit until September 2002 at least, following the discovery of Codling moth in four consignments of fruit shipped in from the southern cone country. US officials are hoping the Colombian ban on Chile will bring its growers new market opportunities in Colombia, and a Colombian delegation is due to visit apple growing areas in Michigan and Washington in August. Colombia was Chile's seventh largest market in 2001 accounting for three per cent of total fruit exports. The greatest opportunities for the US lie in table grape, apple and pear sendings.