CHIEF PLANT Quarantine Inspector in the Ministry of Agriculture, Carol Thomas, is reporting a decline in the rejection rate of most agricultural exports.
She attributes it to the increased vigilance of plant quarantine officers stationed at clearance areas at the Agricultural Marketing Corporation (AMC) complex in Kingston and the Norman Manley and Sangster International airports.
The chief inspector says her unit monitors exporters by inspecting packing houses, which should not be part of dwelling houses or situated in residential areas, and should be inspect-proof, have concrete flooring and running water.
Packing houses must meet these criteria before an exporter is recommended for a licence to export agricultural goods.
Miss Thomas says inspections may include farm visits where insects are detected in a shipment.
In these instances, the Plant Quarantine Division traces the origin of the pests and, in collaboration with the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) and the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute, (CARDI) arranges training sessions on insect prevention and control, farm management and World Trade Organisation regulations.
The division, reports JIS News, has also implemented a programme to inform exporters of the sanitary and phyto-sanitary standards required for the export of foods.
Singling out callaloo as one of the products that was now more readily accepted for export, Miss Thomas said 70 per cent of callaloo from exporters gets accepted for export to Europe, Canada and the United States. This is an improvement over the last five years when the vegetable from many exporters could not be accepted due to the presence of larvae on the leaves.
"If one insect is found in a box to be shipped, the entire shipment is rejected," she pointed out.
Miss Thomas also named papaya and root crops as produce which have reached and maintained acceptable standards for export.
She disclosed that due to the presence of insects on hot peppers the product was now fumigated before leaving the island. The process involves placing the peppers in an airtight chamber for two hours with a chemical gas, methyl bromide. This is in keeping with a request made by the United States Food and Drug Administration in 1999.
Commenting on the United States Government's decision to allow yams treated with certain fungicides to enter the country, she said the Plant Quarantine Division would be hosting seminars for yam exporters on the use of the fungicides.
