How do imported fruits make their way to China?

In July, after suspending imports for nearly 3 years, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine reinstated Thailand's wax apple import qualification. Meanwhile, the "List of Fresh Fruit Types and Exporting Countries and Regions Granted Inspection and Quarantine Access to China," updated this month, suspended the import of fresh fruit from Israel. Why must fresh fruit imports obtain inspection and quarantine access? Why does the list of fruits granted access keep changing?

“Implementing inspection and quarantine access is intended to prevent the introduction of foreign quarantine pests and to protect the safety of our country's agricultural and forestry production and the ecological environment. This is also one of the WTO's exception clauses.” said Wu Hao, director of the Biosafety Division of the Department of Animal and Plant Quarantine of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.

For imported fruit to travel across the ocean to China, the official plant quarantine authorities of its exporting country must first submit a written export application to our country's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, and provide the necessary technical information, such as planting area, orchard management measures, pest prevention measures, and so on.

Subsequently, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine may initiate the access procedure for it and conduct a pest risk analysis. Pest risk analysis includes risk analysis initiation, risk assessment and risk management. “Fresh fruit inevitably carries pests such as insects and fungi, especially quarantine pests, which are often easy to introduce but difficult to eradicate.” Wu Hao explained that risk assessment means determining whether the pests carried by fresh fruit are quarantine pests, and evaluating the possibility of their introduction and spread as well as their potential economic impact.

“As needed, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine may request the exporting country's quarantine authorities to supplement, confirm or clarify relevant technical information, and may send technical personnel to the exporting country or region to conduct quarantine inspections.” Wu Hao added.

Based on the results of the risk assessment, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine will propose a list of pests of concern, that is, a list of pests prohibited from entry, and clarify the quarantine requirements that should be met during the planting, harvesting, processing, storage and transportation of fresh fruit, as well as the disinfestation treatment measures that must be taken, and so on.

If the importing and exporting parties reach agreement on the above quarantine requirements, namely the pest list and the disinfestation measures that must be taken, an export protocol will be signed. At this point, the fruit has obtained access permission to our country.

In addition, our country also implements a registration system for orchards and packing houses that export fresh fruit to China. All orchards and packing houses intending to export fruit to China must register as required. “The Administration's website publishes the list of registered orchards and packing houses on a regular basis. Enterprises not on the list may not export fruit to our country.” Wu Hao said.

However, imported fruit's arrival in China is not always smooth sailing. Taking Thailand's wax apple as an example, since 2011, inspection and quarantine departments have repeatedly intercepted the prohibited pest guava fruit fly on Thai wax apples coming to China, so the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine decided to suspend imports of Thai wax apple starting from June 1, 2012. In response, the Thai side proposed using bagging to prevent wax apples from carrying the guava fruit fly, and carried out experiments and collected data. “The experiments lasted nearly 1.5 years in total. During this period, the Administration dispatched multiple expert teams to Thailand to inspect and verify whether the data was true and valid.” Wu Hao said. In addition, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine also carried out trial imports twice a month through a single designated port to confirm the effectiveness of the bagging measures. Finally, in July of this year, China and Thailand restored the export protocol. On August 5, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine updated the list of Thai wax apple orchards and packing houses producing and packaging according to the new method for export to China.

“Inspection and quarantine is a dynamic process. Our country will periodically conduct retrospective reviews of the signed protocols. At the same time, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine will update the list at any time based on the actual situation of import inspection and quarantine and disease conditions in various places.” Wu Hao said.