USDA extends cold treatment times against Medfly
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has adopted regulations to extend the cold treatment times for imported fruits subject to infestations of Mediterranean fruit flies, or Medfly.
The USDA’s new rule requires an additional 2.5 days of cold treatment to effectively kill the Medfly in bulk fruits.
Most cold-treated fruit imports are treated aboard ships while in transit to the United States. Some treatments are allowed by the USDA in authorized ports. Treatments done aboard ships must be completed before arrival in the United States.
While the treatments apply to all types of fruit, the biggest impact of the regulations will be felt by importers of clementines, ortaniques and tangerines from Spain, Morocco, Israel and Italy.
A representative from Lauritzen, a company that specializes in the bulk shipping of fruit, estimated the following daily charges will be added to the cost of shipping clementines, ortaniques and tangerines by the additional 2.5 day cold treatment requirement: $10,000 chartering fee (depending on availability of bulk ships); $2,160 docking fee (27 cents per metric ton with an average ship size of 8,000 metric tons); $990 fuel at anchorage fee (five to six tons at $180 per ton) and 50 cents per pallet cold treatment fee.
Also included in its rulemaking, USDA will require inspectors at the port of first arrival to sample and cut fruit from each shipment cold treated for Medfly to monitor the effectiveness of the treatments.