Through a note, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and which is an entity attached to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported on the authorization to import avocados from Guatemala to that market.
The notification has been received by Guatemalan fruit producers, who have reported on the legal procedures that are still pending among the government authorities, and which will allow the first offices to be made between January and February next, prior to the Super Bowl scheduled for 25 February 2025.
It was clarified that the publication of APHIS is part of the process, but that it will soon be completed – to specify imports with eligibility.
Pending the “final rule”
Francisco Viteri García-Gallont, president of the National Avocado Association (Anaguacate), told Prensa Libre that this publication of APHIS means confirmation that the final rule is already there – and the guidelines that must be met to be admissible the water hass originating from Guatemala to the U.S. market is being given.
To make the first deliveries of the fruit, the publication of the final rule – which are the phytosanitary aspects to be fulfilled, as well as the obligation of the operational work plan (POT) to establish in detail and in writing how the final rule will be implemented and the operation will be implemented.
In this part of the publications, the annexes and procedures of what APHIS indicates in the final rule should be attached.
The manager explained that the final rule is interpreted as the law or regulations in which producers and packers will have to be governed and then the POT, which is the regulation in which the regulations will be implemented.
He reiterated that, with this official publication, the offices cannot yet be done, but if it helps to define what will be the guidelines in which they will have to work, so now the Comprehensive Program for Agricultural and Environmental Protection (PIPAA) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food (Maga) in conjunction with APHIS having the final rule published would have to make the operational work plan, which is equivalent to the regulations.
What’s coming
In the short term, what the regulations say will depend, but there is a commitment that the 2025 Super Bowl can market the fruit, as the U.S. ambassador to Guatemala Tobin Bradley has repeatedly explained, said the manager of Anaguacate.
The publication is the responsibility of the official entities, which is USDA and the Maga, and the manager pointed out that the information available would be published before 15 December, published and authorized by the competent authorities the POT.
As far as the guidelines are concerned, these relate to plant protections in which pests and diseases are listed, which should be freed by sites or production sites.
In the case of Guatemala, the work approach is under a system of free sites, so mitigation measures are developed, in order to ensure that the area where the fruit is produced is free of pests and diseases.
“There is a commitment that in the Super Bowl of 2025 the fruit can be marketed, as the U.S. ambassador to Guatemala Tobin Bradley has repeatedly stated”
Francisco Viteri García-Gallont, president of the National Avocado Association
The POT would then reflect the plant protection guidelines that are required there, what are the pests and quarantined diseases, which will specify what will have to be done and as well as monitor the points that are controlled and monitored.
Offices
The president of Anaguate declared that the harvest season would be taken advantage of in order to be able to dispatch between January and February, between 20 and 25 containers, with the admissibility.
These farms are ready to be certified, and have been working rigorously before to ensure that the fruit does not have the presence of pests and diseases.
In addition, the sector has the tools to work controls and avoid the presence of pests in production sites. These farms would have harvest for January and February and which already have the protocols.
As for packers, there are five plants that process fruit to the European and Central American market, which are able to meet the requirements for sending the fruit to consumers in the US. U.S.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Prensa Libre