The Packer, a Lenexa, Kansas,-based publication that focuses on fresh fruits and vegetables, ran a story yesterday about an ongoing dispute over CDFA handling of avocado imports from Mexico. (The story is available on The Packer's Web site only with a subscription.)
In short, the article says Mexican avocado producers are suing CDFA for unreasonably blocking Mexican avocado shipments to California. Mexican avocados were allowed entry to the California market beginning Feb. 1, 2007. Later that month, the agriculture department rejected 11 truckloads of the fruit because of the presence of live scale insects. Reporter John Chadwell sought insight from UC Riverside entomologist Joe Morse. Morse is leading a team of UC entomologists who are inspecting boxes of avocados at the Mexican border.
“We’re looking at what the levels of armored scales are in a box and extrapolate it up, assuming the same numbers are in all the boxes,” Morse is quoted in the article. “That’s risky, but what else can you do, inspect the entire truck? I don’t think the shippers would allow that.”
He said if high levels of insects were to get into the state they could damage fruit trees and, in rare instances, some species could kill trees.
However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection service ruled scales do not pose a threat. In July, the CDFA issued a Pest Exclusion Advisory, ordering inspectors to stop rejecting commercial shipments even if the scales were present.
"That made no sense to me,” Morse said. “We’re quite concerned about the danger. I realize that APHIS has ruled that they don’t think it’s a danger, but my personal opinion is that’s ridiculous.”