Bananas (Musa spp., which include M. acuminate cultivars and M. acuminate × M. balbisiana hybrids) may be imported into the continental United States, Guam, Hawaii, and the Northern Mariana Islands from the Philippines only under the conditions described in this section.

General requirements

The National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO) of the Philippines must provide an operational workplan to APHIS detailing the activities that the NPPO of the Philippines will, subject to APHIS's approval of the workplan, carry out to meet the requirements of this section.

Bananas must be grown at places of production that are registered with the NPPO of the Philippines and that meet the requirements of this section. Registration must be renewed annually.

Bananas must be packed for export to the United States in packinghouses that meet the requirements of this section.

Monitoring and oversight

The NPPO of the Philippines must visit and inspect registered places of production monthly, starting at least 3 months before harvest begins and continuing through the end of the shipping season, to verify the growers are complying with the requirements of this section and follow pest-control guidelines, when necessary, to reduce quarantine pest populations. When trapping is required (as described below), the NPPO of the Philippines must also verify the growers are complying with the trapping requirements and must certify each place of production has an effective fruit fly trapping program. Any personnel conducting trapping as described below must be trained and supervised by the NPPO of the Philippines. APHIS may monitor the places of production as necessary to ensure compliance.

If the NPPO of the Philippines 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 the Philippines conduct an investigation and appropriate remedial actions have been implemented.

The NPPO of the Philippines 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.

Fruit fly trapping to establish places of production with low pest prevalence

Beginning at least 3 months before harvest begins and continuing through the end of the harvest, trapping must be conducted in registered places of production with at least 1 trap per 0.2 square kilometers to demonstrate the places of production have a low prevalence of Bactrocera spp. fruit flies. APHIS-approved traps baited with APHIS-approved plugs must be used and serviced at least once every 2 weeks. During the trapping, when traps are serviced, if fruit flies are trapped at a particular place of production at cumulative levels above 2 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 bananas to the United States. The NPPO of the Philippines must keep records of fruit fly detections for each trap, update the records each time the traps are checked, and make the records available to APHIS inspectors upon request. If no Bactrocera spp. larvae have been found in the inspections as described below by November 10, 2016, the activities described in this paragraph are no longer required.

Bagging requirements

Plastic bags impregnated with pesticides must cover the bananas. During the growing period, if a pesticide bag falls off or is torn, the fruit that had been in that bag may not be exported to the United States.

The identification of the place of production must be maintained from the time when the fruit leaves the place of production until the fruit is released for entry into the United States.

Post-harvest processing

After harvest, all damaged or diseased fruit must be culled at the packinghouse. Fruit must be washed with a high-pressure water spray, and washed with soap and water.

Packinghouse requirements

Packinghouses must prevent the entry of pests with a double-door entry system designed to exclude quarantine pests of concern.

Bananas for export must be packed into new, clean boxes, crates or other packing materials. Bananas intended for export to the United States must be labeled with the name and location for the packinghouse, and segregated from bananas intended for other markets.

The shipping documents accompanying the consignment of bananas from the Philippines exported to the United States must include the official registration number of the place of production at which the bananas were grown and must identify the packinghouse in which the fruit was processed and packed. This identification must be maintained until the fruit is released for entry into the United States.

The packinghouse operations for export of bananas must be monitored by the NPPO of the Philippines.

NPPO of the Philippines inspection

Following any post-harvest processing, inspectors from the NPPO of the Philippines must certify that bananas were harvested at the hard green stage.

Inspectors from the NPPO of the Philippines must inspect a biometric sample of the fruit from each place of production at a rate to be determined by APHIS. The inspectors must visually inspect for quarantine pests listed in the operational workplan and must cut fruit to inspect for quarantine pests that are internal feeders. If, upon inspection, Bactrocera spp. fruit flies are found, the export program will be suspended until an investigation has been conducted by APHIS and the NPPO of the Philippines and appropriate mitigations have been implemented. If other quarantine pests are detected in this inspection, the consignment will be destroyed and the registered place of production will be rejected from the export program.