APHIS Imposes Additional Requirements on Imports of Citrus From Colombia

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is adding additional requirements for the importation of citrus fruits from Colombia, it said in a notice. The agency will require that citrus fruit be produced only in approved places of production registered with the Colombian government, under fruit fly trapping programs and standard packing house procedures, and be imported only in commercial consignments, it said. Those new requirements would come on top of existing requirements for importation of citrus from Colombia. They would apply to fresh sweet orange, grapefruit, mandarin, clementine and tangerine fruit from the country imported on or after Feb. 6, APHIS said. Importation of citrus fruits from Colombia has been suspended since 2015, and no commercial shipments of Colombian citrus have occurred since 1995, APHIS said. Comments on the change are due April 9.