Chilean fruit guild meets with newly appointed USDA-APHIS director

Chilean fruit industry representatives and officials from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS) met this week in Santiago to review ongoing phytosanitary cooperation.

Amanda Elkhateeb, the new Latin America director for the Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) Precertification and Overseas Programs area, met with Miguel Canala-Echeverría, General Manager at industry body Frutas de Chile, as part of her official introduction visit. Elkhateeb is taking over for Kelsey Branch, who moved to a post in Guatemala.

The meeting focused on the continuity of joint work under the long-running pre-shipment program among USDA-APHIS, Chile’s Agricultural and Livestock Service (SAG, for its initials in Spanish), and the local fruit industry. The program allows phytosanitary inspections to take place in the Latin American country before fruit ships to the US.

“For Frutas de Chile, Amanda Elkhateeb's visit is very important, since we have been working together with USDA-APHIS for more than 40 years,” Canala-Echeverría stressed. “During the meeting, we were able to discuss phytosanitary topics of interest to the sector, such as the Systems Approach, among others.”

The US remains the top destination for the Andean country’s fresh fruit shipments by volume. Last season, Chile shipped approximately 859,699 tons of fresh fruit to this market. 

Table grapes (35 percent), mandarins (16 percent), oranges (13 percent), clementines (eight percent), lemons (six percent), and blueberries (five percent) were among the top commodities exported. Apples, nectarines, and plums accounted for three percent each of the total volume shipped.

From New Jersey to USDA-APHIS in Latin America

Elkhateeb began her APHIS career in 2011 as a student in the PPQ program at the Linden Plant Inspection Station in New Jersey. She joined the agency full-time in 2012 as a plant health safeguarding specialist after earning her bachelor’s degree.

During more than a decade with APHIS, she served as national operations manager for the Smuggling Interdiction and Trade Compliance Program beginning in 2017 and later became trade director of the Phytosanitary Issues Management area in 2021.

In her most recent role, Elkhateeb worked on market access and phytosanitary trade issues involving US agricultural exports. She also managed trade relations with Mexico, Guatemala, Indonesia, and Caribbean nations, while overseeing specialty crop trade matters globally for the agency.

*Main image courtesy of Frutas de Chile; other images are referential.

Related stories

USDA-APHIS, SAG, and Frutas de Chile update key pre-shipment program agreement