Fresh Hass variety avocados (Persea americana P. Mill.) may be imported into the continental United States from Peru only under the conditions described in this section. These conditions are designed to prevent the introduction of the following quarantine pests: Anastrepha fraterculus (Wiedemann), the South American fruit fly; Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann), the Mediterranean fruit fly; Coccus viridis (Green), the green scale; Ferrisia malvastra (McDaniel), a mealybug; and Stenoma catenifer Walsingham, the avocado seed moth.

General requirements

The National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO) of Peru must provide a workplan to APHIS detailing the activities the NPPO of Peru will, subject to APHIS's approval of the workplan, carry out to meet the requirements of this section. The NPPO of Peru must also establish a trust fund in accordance with § 319.56-6.

The avocados must be grown at places of production that are registered with the NPPO of Peru and that meet the requirements of this section.

The avocados must be packed for export to the United States in packinghouses that are registered with the NPPO of Peru and that meet the requirements of this section.

Monitoring and oversight

The NPPO of Peru must visit and inspect registered places of production monthly, starting at least 2 months before harvest and continuing until the end of the shipping season, to verify the growers are complying with the requirements pertaining to grove sanitation and harvesting and follow pest-control guidelines, when necessary, to reduce quarantine pest populations. Any personnel conducting trapping and pest surveys for S. catenifer must be trained and supervised by the NPPO of Peru. APHIS may monitor the places of production if necessary.

In addition to conducting fruit inspections at the packinghouses, the NPPO of Peru must monitor packinghouse operations to verify the packinghouses are complying with packinghouse requirements.

If the NPPO of Peru finds a place of production or packinghouse 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 of Peru conduct an investigation and appropriate remedial actions have been implemented.

The NPPO of Peru must retain 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.

Grove sanitation

Avocado fruit that has fallen from the trees must be removed from each place of production at least once every 7 days, starting 2 months before harvest and continuing to the end of harvest. Fallen avocado fruit may not be included in field containers of fruit brought to the packinghouse to be packed for export.

Surveys for S. catenifer

Peruvian departamentos in which avocados are grown for export to the United States must be surveyed by the NPPO of Peru at least once annually, no more than 2 months before harvest begins, and found to be free from infestation by S. catenifer. APHIS must approve the survey protocol used to determine and maintain pest-free status and the actions to be performed if S. catenifer is detected. Surveys must include representative areas from all parts of each registered place of production in each departamento. The NPPO of Peru must cut and inspect a biometric sample of fruit at a rate determined by APHIS. Fruit sampled must be either from the upper half of the tree or from the ground. Sampled fruit must be cut and examined for the presence of eggs and larvae of S. catenifer in the pulp or seed and for the presence of eggs in the pedicel.

If one or more S. catenifer is detected in the annual survey, or during any other monitoring or inspection activity, the affected place of production will be immediately suspended from the export program until appropriate measures to reestablish pest freedom, agreed upon by the NPPO of Peru and APHIS, have been taken. The NPPO of Peru must keep records of S. catenifer detections for each orchard, update the records each time the orchards are surveyed, and make the records available to APHIS inspectors upon request. The records must be maintained for at least 1 year after the beginning of the harvest.

Harvesting requirements

Harvested avocados must be placed in field cartons or containers marked with the official registration number of the place of production. The place of production at which the avocados were grown must remain identifiable when the fruit leaves the grove, at the packinghouse, and throughout the export process. The fruit must be moved to a registered packinghouse within 3 hours of harvest or must be protected from fruit fly infestation until moved. The fruit must be safeguarded by an insect-proof screen or plastic tarpaulin while in transit to the packinghouse and while awaiting packing.

Packinghouse requirements

During the time registered packinghouses are in use for packing avocados for export to the United States, the packinghouses may only accept avocados from registered places of production and produced in accordance with the requirements of this section.

Avocados must be packed within 24 hours of harvest in an insect-exclusionary packinghouse. All openings to the outside of the packinghouse 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 packinghouse must have double doors at the entrance to the facility and at the interior entrance to the area where the avocados are packed.

Before packing, all avocados must be cleaned of all plant debris.

Fruit must be packed in insect-proof packaging, or covered with insect-proof mesh or a plastic tarpaulin, for transport to the United States. These safeguards must remain intact until arrival in the United States.

Shipping documents accompanying consignments of avocados from Peru exported to the United States must include the official registration number of the place of production at which the avocados were grown and must identify the packing shed or sheds in which the fruit was processed and packed. This identification must be maintained until the fruit is released for entry into the United States.

NPPO of Peru inspection

Following any post-harvest processing, inspectors from the NPPO of Peru must inspect a biometric sample of fruit from each place of production at a rate to be determined by APHIS. The inspectors must visually inspect for the quarantine pests listed in the introductory text above and must cut fruit to inspect for S. catenifer. If any quarantine pests are detected in this inspection, the place of production at which the infested avocados were grown will immediately be suspended from the export program until an investigation has been conducted by APHIS and the NPPO of Peru and appropriate mitigations have been implemented.