[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 73 (Monday, April 16, 2012)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 22465-22467]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-9066]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
7 CFR Part 319
[Docket No. APHIS-2010-0113]
RIN 0579-AD40
Importation of Fresh Pitaya Fruit From Central America Into the
Continental United States
AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.
ACTION: Final rule.
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SUMMARY: We are amending the fruits and vegetables regulations to allow
the importation of fresh pitaya fruit from Central America into the
continental United States. As a condition of entry, the pitaya fruit
must be produced in accordance with a systems approach that includes
requirements for monitoring and oversight, establishment of pest-free
places of production, and procedures for packing the pitaya fruit. This
action will allow for the importation of pitaya fruit from Central
America into the continental United States while continuing to provide
protection against the introduction of plant pests.
DATES: Effective Date: May 16, 2012.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. David Lamb, Import Specialist,
Regulatory Coordination and Compliance, PPQ, APHIS, 4700 River Road
Unit 133, Riverdale, MD 20737-1236; (301) 851-2103.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The regulations in ``Subpart--Fruits and Vegetables'' (7 CFR
319.56-1 through 319.56-54, referred to below as the regulations)
prohibit or restrict the importation of fruits and vegetables into the
United States from certain parts of the world to prevent the
introduction and dissemination of plant pests within the United States.
On May 24, 2011, we published in the Federal Register (76 FR 30036-
30040, Docket No. APHIS-2010-0113) a proposal \1\ to amend the
regulations by allowing fresh pitaya from Central America to be
imported into the continental United States. We proposed that, as a
condition of entry, the pitaya fruit must be produced in accordance
with a systems approach that includes requirements for monitoring and
oversight, establishment of pest-free places of production, and
procedures for packing the pitaya fruit.
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\1\ To view the proposed rule and supporting documents, go to
http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=APHIS-2010-0113.
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We solicited comments concerning our proposal for 60 days ending
July 25, 2011. We did not receive any comments.
Therefore, for the reasons given in the proposed rule, we are
adopting the proposed rule as a final rule, without change.
Executive Order 12866 and Regulatory Flexibility Act
This final rule has been determined to be not significant for the
purposes of Executive Order 12866 and, therefore, has not been reviewed
by the Office of Management and Budget.
In accordance with the Regulatory Flexibility Act, we have analyzed
the potential economic effects of this action on small entities. The
analysis is summarized below. Copies of the full analysis are available
by contacting the person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
or on the Regulations.gov Web site (see footnote 1 for a link to
Regulations.gov).
This rule will allow the importation of fresh pitaya fruit into the
continental United States from the Central American countries of
Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and
Panama in accordance with a systems approach that includes requirements
for monitoring and oversight, establishment of pest-free places of
production, and procedures for packing the pitaya fruit. Entities
potentially affected by the rule are U.S. pitaya fruit growers, of
which most, if not all, are small entities.
Pitaya fruit is produced in Hawaii, California, and Florida, but
the quantities produced, numbers of U.S. producers, quantities
imported, and other factors needed to assess likely economic effects of
this rule are not known. The quantity of pitaya fruit expected to be
imported from Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and
Panama is also unknown. Nicaragua estimates exporting 1,200 metric tons
(60 forty-foot containers) of pitaya fruit to the continental U.S.
annually, and it is thought that the other countries may ship similar
or lesser amounts.
Executive Order 12988
This final rule allows fresh pitaya to be imported into the United
States from Central America. State and local laws and regulations
regarding pitaya imported under this rule will be preempted while the
fruit is in foreign commerce. Fresh fruits and vegetables are generally
imported for immediate distribution and sale to the consuming public,
and remain in foreign commerce until sold to the ultimate consumer. The
question of when foreign commerce ceases in other cases must be
addressed on a case-by-case basis. No retroactive effect will be given
to this rule, and this rule will not require administrative proceedings
before parties may file suit in court challenging this rule.
Paperwork Reduction Act
In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C.
3501 et seq.), the information collection or recordkeeping requirements
included in this rule have been approved by the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) under OMB control number 0579-0378.
E-Government Act Compliance
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is committed to
compliance with the E-Government Act to promote the use of the Internet
and other information technologies, to provide increased opportunities
for citizen access to Government information and services, and for
other purposes. For information pertinent to E-Government Act
compliance related to this rule, please contact Mrs. Celeste Sickles,
APHIS' Information Collection Coordinator, at (301) 851-2908.
List of Subjects in 7 CFR Part 319
Coffee, Cotton, Fruits, Imports, Logs, Nursery stock, Plant
diseases and pests, Quarantine, Reporting and
[[Page 22466]]
recordkeeping requirements, Rice, Vegetables.
Accordingly, we are amending 7 CFR part 319 as follows:
PART 319--FOREIGN QUARANTINE NOTICES
0
1. The authority citation for part 319 continues to read as follows
Authority: 7 U.S.C. 450, 7701-7772, and 7781-7786; 21 U.S.C. 136
and 136a; 7 CFR 2.22, 2.80, and 371.3.
0
2. A new Sec. 319.56-55 is added to read as follows:
Sec. 319.56-55 Fresh pitaya from certain Central American countries.
Fresh pitaya fruit (Hylocereus spp.) may be imported into the
United States from Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala,
Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama in accordance with the conditions
described in this section. These conditions are designed to prevent the
introduction of the following quarantine pests: Anastrepha ludens,
Ceratitis capitata, Dysmicoccus neobrevipes, and Planococcus minor.
(a) Monitoring and oversight. (1) The national plant protection
organization (NPPO) of the exporting country must provide a workplan to
APHIS that details the activities that the NPPO will, subject to APHIS
approval, carry out to meet the requirements of this section. APHIS
will be directly involved with the NPPO in the monitoring and auditing
implementation of the systems approach.
(2) The NPPO of the exporting country must conduct inspections at
the packinghouses and monitor packinghouse operations. Starting 2
months before harvest and continuing until the end of the shipping
season, the NPPO of the exporting country must visit and inspect the
places of production monthly to verify compliance with the requirements
of this section. If the NPPO finds that a packinghouse or place of
production is not complying with the requirements of this section, no
fruit from the place of production or packinghouse will be eligible for
export to the United States until APHIS and the NPPO have conducted an
investigation and appropriate remedial actions have been implemented.
(3) The NPPO must review and maintain all forms and documents
related to export program activities in places of production and
packinghouses for at least 1 year and, as requested, provide them to
APHIS for review.
(b) Place of production requirements. (1) The personnel conducting
the trapping required in paragraph (c) of this section must be hired,
trained, and supervised by the NPPO of the exporting country. The
exporting country's NPPO must certify that each place of production has
effective fruit fly trapping programs, and follows control guidelines,
when necessary, to reduce quarantine pest populations. APHIS may
monitor the places of production.
(2) The places of production producing pitaya for export to the
United States must be registered with the NPPO of the exporting
country.
(3) Trees and other structures, other than the crop itself, must
not shade the crop during the day. No C. capitata or A. ludens host
plants may be grown within 100 meters of the edge of the production
site.
(4) Pitaya fruit that has fallen on the ground must be removed from
the place of production at least once every 7 days and may not be
included in field containers of fruit to be packed for export.
(5) Harvested pitaya fruit must be placed in field cartons or
containers that are marked to show the place of production.
(c) Mitigation measures for C. capitata and A. ludens--(1) Pest-
free places of production. (i) Beginning at least 1 year before harvest
begins and continuing through the end of the shipping season, trapping
for A. ludens and C. capitata must be conducted in the places of pitaya
fruit production with at least 1 trap per hectare of APHIS-approved
traps, serviced every 7 days.
(ii) From 2 months prior to harvest through the end of the shipping
season, when traps are serviced, if either A. ludens or C. capitata are
trapped at a particular place of production at cumulative levels above
0.07 flies per trap per day, pesticide bait treatments must be applied
in the affected place of production in order for the place of
production to remain eligible to export pitaya fruit to the continental
United States. If the average A. ludens or C. capitata catch is greater
than 0.07 flies per trap per day for more than 2 consecutive weeks, the
place of production is ineligible for export until the rate of capture
drops to an average of less than 0.07 flies per trap per day.
(iii) The NPPO must maintain records of fruit fly detections for
each trap, update the records each time the traps are checked, and make
the records available to APHIS upon request. The records must be
maintained for at least 1 year for APHIS review.
(2) Pest-free area for C. capitata. If the pitaya fruit are
produced in a place of production located in an area that is designated
as free of C. capitata in accordance with Sec. 319.56-5, the trapping
in paragraph (c)(1) of this section is not required for C. capitata.
(d) Packinghouse requirements. (1) The packinghouses must be
registered with the NPPO of the exporting country.
(2) All openings to the outside must be covered by screening with
openings of not more than 1.6 mm or by some other barrier that prevents
pests from entering the packinghouses.
(3) The packinghouses must have double doors at the entrance to the
facilities and at the interior entrance to the area where the pitaya
fruit are packed.
(4) While in use for packing pitaya fruit for export to the United
States, the packinghouses may only accept pitaya fruit that are from
registered places of production and that are produced in accordance
with the requirements of this section.
(e) Post-harvest procedures. The pitaya fruit must be packed within
24 hours of harvest in a pest-exclusionary packinghouse. Pitaya fruit
must be packed in insect-proof cartons or containers that can be sealed
at the packinghouse, or covered with insect-proof mesh or a plastic
tarpaulin for transport to the United States. These safeguards must be
intact upon arrival in the United States.
(f) Phytosanitary inspection. (1) The NPPO of the exporting country
must visually inspect a biometric sample of pitaya fruit, jointly
approved by APHIS and the NPPO of the exporting country, for D.
neobrevipes and P. minor, and cut open a portion of the fruit to detect
A. ludens and C. capitata. If the fruit is from a pest-free area for C.
capitata, then the fruit will only be inspected for A. ludens.
(2) The fruit are subject to inspection at the port of entry for
all quarantine pests of concern. Shipping documents identifying the
place(s) of production in which the fruit was produced and the packing
shed(s) in which the fruit was processed must accompany each lot of
fruit presented for inspection at the port of entry to the United
States. This identification must be maintained until the fruit is
released for entry into the United States.
(3) If D. neobrevipes or P. minor is found, the entire consignment
of fruit will be prohibited from import into the United States unless
the shipment is treated with an approved treatment monitored by APHIS.
If inspectors (either from the exporting country's NPPO or at the U.S.
port of entry) find a single fruit fly larva in a shipment, they will
reject the entire consignment for shipment to the United States, and
the place of production for that
[[Page 22467]]
shipment will be suspended from the export program until appropriate
measures, agreed upon by the NPPO of the exporting country and APHIS,
have been taken.
(g) Commercial consignments. The pitaya fruit may be imported in
commercial consignments only.
(h) Phytosanitary certificate. Each consignment of pitaya fruit
must be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate issued by the NPPO
of the exporting country, containing an additional declaration stating
that the fruit in the consignment was produced in accordance with
requirements in 7 CFR 319.56-55.
(Approved by the Office of Management and Budget under control
number 0579-0378)
Done in Washington, DC, this 9th day of April 2012.
Kevin Shea,
Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. 2012-9066 Filed 4-13-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-34-P