California Table Grape Commission President Kathleen Nave responded in a Nov. 16 release to the continuous pressure exerted by the Chilean table grape sector to obtain approval for the Systems Approach exports protocol.
Nave indicated that the California industry is encouraging USDA Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to permanently abandon approval, deeming it a "risky proposal".
If enforced, the agreement will allow producers in areas with low prevalence of Lobesia botrana and Brevipalpus chilensis in the regions of Atacama, Coquimbo and Valparaíso, who meet the established requirements, to export without fumigation with methyl bromide. A process that, Chileans say, hinders fruit quality.
This will require producers to register and prove their compliance with requirements. These include setting traps in orchards, permanent monitoring and inspection at origin jointly between both countries, among other actions that ensure the export of a safe product.
Chile currently ships approximately 37 million boxes of table grapes per season to the U.S., accounting for over half of the country’s total exports.
However, the California industry says that, if approved, many invasive pests could travel, which would mean a significant risk of potentially devastating infestations on wine, raisin and table grape crops across the U.S.
Frutas de Chile (formerly ASOEX) President Iván Marambio tells FreshFruitPortal.com that the sector will continue to push for approval.
"We are developing a number of actions, we have even escalated the issue to President Gabriel Boric, who in turn has presented the issue to the U.S. President, Joe Biden. Our strategy is now focused on taking this issue to the Chilean authorities,” Marambio says.
Marambio adds that "the opinion of the California grape committee is what they have always said, they are very outdated and believe that we should continue spraying when we do not have pests. We comply with regulations, which are the formal and technical aspects that have already been presented to the USDA’s phytosanitary agencies. And they have already agreed that we do not need to fumigate.”
Chilean Agriculture Minister Esteban Valenzuela indicates that they have entered a formal complaint from Chile to the World Trade Organization system.
"This is serious for us, Chilean table grapes comply with everything and Californians export a lot to Chile, we import wheat, vegetables and other products and therefore they have to support free trade. If we want free trade, we need coherence on both sides,” he says.
Similarly to Frutas de Chile’s statement, Valenzuela indicates technical issues are settled, "they simply do not want to make the agreement official, even when we have complied with all consultation phases and complaints. There are also supermarket chains and key players in the North American trade chain themselves who criticize this unilateral decision not to publish the Systems Approach.”
