ISSUE 1127 USDA ESTABLISHES REGULATIONS FOR FRUIT MOVEMENT FROM FLORIDA Effective
August 1, USDA’s Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has amended
its requirements for the movement of fresh fruit from Florida to prevent the spread
of citrus canker. The amended requirements are intended to provide a mechanism
for healthy Florida citrus fruit to be sold to noncitrus-producing states. The
new rule removes the ban on fruit shipments from a grove that has had canker in
the past two years. And while shipments are not allowed to California, Arizona,
Louisiana, Hawaii, Texas, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands,
Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the regulation does allow shipments to
Alabama, which had been included in an embargo the USDA proposed earlier. For
more details and comment submission guidelines, see the APHIS news release in
the Resource
Library section of www.ffva.com. The public has until October 2 to comment. ALSO IN THIS WEEK'S RAP-UP (Members-Only articles are indicated in bold.) |
