Fresh Argentine fruit will have new entry requirements to Canada

13/12/2016

The National Service for Agri-Food Health and Quality (SENASA) agreed with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to apply an Integrated Measures System to Lobesia botrana for the export of fresh Argentine fruit to that country.

Last June, the CFIA announced that it would establish modifications to the phytosanitary import requirements for fresh fruit, in order to prevent the introduction to its territory of the pest. Lobesia botrana, under the D-13-03 Directive.

The latter specifies an extensive list of countries and plant products achieved by the new phytosanitary requirements imposed by the country of North America.

It should be noted that the CFIA only included the Phytosanitary Certificate issued by the Argentinean agency as an import requirement for shipments of plant products from Argentina, without reference to pest regulation. From the aforementioned change, the Senasa must certify that each shipment is free of Lobesia botrana.

In this framework, and based on the commercial interest of the export sector, the Argentine national service raised to the CFIA a proposal for Integrated Measures System for the plague in question, among the three phytosanitary certification options imposed by the Canadian nation, the which was approved by your body.

This agreement covers the following products: grape, blueberry, cherry, plum, peach, pomegranate and kiwi. All operational procedures for compliance with this measure are already approved and underway for the current season.

«Cranberry and cherries exports have already been carried out to Canada under this modality and exports of the rest of the products involved are expected to be made in the coming weeks. In this way, Senasa achieved that the phytosanitary certification for the export of these products has an alternative to the application of a quarantine treatment with methyl bromide, which would imply higher direct and indirect costs.«, highlighted the director of Phytosanitary Certification, Martín Delucis.

The implementation of the change was carried out in phases, the first one reaching grapes and blueberries. The second included several species, among which Prunus spp. (cherry, plum, peaches, nectarines, almonds, among others) and pomegranate.

There is a third phase in which the kiwi is included, but it is not yet in force.

Argentine fresh fruit exports to Canada, between 2012 and 2015, were: 2.631 tons of blueberries (79%), 463 tons of grapes (14%), 86 of figs (3%), 79 of cherries (2%). ), 72 from kiwi (2%) and 19 from pomegranate (1%).

Source: Senasa.gov.ar