SAG Inspection increased almost 28% in Teno Site
Last July 31 closed its facilities, for this season, the Teno Phytosanitary Inspection Site, which registered an increase of 27.6% in the total boxes of fresh fruit inspected by the SAG to the North American market.
The operation of this place is due to the joint work between the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA / APHIS), the Association of Exporters of Chile (ASOEX) and the SAG, which aim to allow the export of fruit in optimal conditions Phytosanitary products to the North American market.
During the 2017 / 2018 season at the Teno Site, 6.439.478 fruit boxes were inspected, the main species being apples, cherries and blueberries; while this season 2018 / 2019 were 8.216.728 boxes all bound for the United States.
In this regard, the regional director of the SAG, Luis Fernando Pinochet, said that “in this inspection site an important task is carried out, which is to certify the phytosanitary condition of the fruit that is specifically sent to the United States. That is why it is relevant to mention that for this season we have had a significant increase in the amount of boxes inspected, which also demonstrates the dynamism of the agricultural sector in our region. ”
It should be mentioned that currently the SAG in its facilities in Teno, provides inspection services to 94 exporting companies in the country, from the Metropolitan region to the south. This activity is complemented by the work of similar characteristics carried out by the Lo Herrera inspection sites, located in the Metropolitan region, Los Lirios Site, located in O'Higgins, and Cabrero in the Biobío region.
Joint inspection
Regarding the work carried out in this place, the Regional Manager of Agricultural and Forestry Protection of SAG, Eric Paredes, indicated that “The Teno inspection site is a phytosanitary inspection and inspection center for fruit, within a pre-program Shipping SAG - USDA / APHIS, which allows the fruit to enter the United States directly to supermarkets, without having to go through a new inspection at destination. It is in these facilities, and under strict protection conditions, that the fruit from different fruit plants is reviewed, both from the Maule region and from the north and south of the country, under US regulations, which translates into a Joint inspection between USDA officials, designated on the premises, and SAG inspectors, ”he said.
The Teno Phytosanitary Inspection Site, opened in 2010, has 8 tables for review and inspection of samples and 46 officials operating, as well as an entomology laboratory with advanced technology.
Molecular Biology Laboratory
This inspection site has modern analysis technology for the determination of species considered of quarantine importance for the North American market. This is how it has a modern molecular biology laboratory, in which fundamental work is carried out for the approval of lots under SAG phytosanitary inspection. In this regard, the regional director indicated, “SAG and ASOEX saw the need for a state-of-the-art tool for rapid diagnosis through the Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction or PCR-rt technique of species named “White pigs", Which constitute one of the main causes of rejection in fruit for the United States market," he said.
This technique allows the determination of some species of the family Pseudococcidae or commonly called "white pigs" and Curculionidae or also known as “burritos”, using eggs or parts of the insect in immature state that are present in the fruit, allowing to quickly release the lots retained by the presence of immature states of insects, which cannot be reliably identified with the technique of traditional taxonomy In this regard, the Regional Manager of the technical area of the SAG pointed out that “this greatly facilitates the phytosanitary inspection process as it improves the flow of review of the fruit, raising the technological level and making the phytosanitary certification process more competitive, allowing to reach the North American market with the security it demands ”.
During the last season, the PCR-rt teams have approved more than 37 thousand boxes of fruit that without this technique would have been rejected for the United States.
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