APHIS modifies conditions to move fruit in fruit fly quarantine zone

The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) says it will temporarily modify conditions for the movement of fresh citrus fruit from the Redlands Oriental fruit fly (Bactrocera dorsalis) quarantine area of San Bernardino and Riverside counties in California for the duration of the 2024 harvest season. 

Growers in the Redlands Oriental fruit fly quarantine area only have two post-harvest treatments available — methyl bromide fumigation with a subsequent cold holding period or irradiation — to move fresh citrus fruit from noncore areas of the quarantine to areas outside of the quarantine, APHIS said.

The service said those options are not economically viable for growers in the quarantine area and that the federal order establishes a new treatment approach that allows fruit grown in the quarantine area to enter domestic commerce outside the quarantine using alternative treatment methods. More information on the quarantine and treatment can be found at the APHIS fruit fly website.

This order only applies to growers in the Redlands Oriental fruit fly quarantine for the 2024 citrus harvest and does not permit international export of citrus fruit from this area unless the citrus meets existing export certification for regulated articles from fruit fly quarantined areas, APHIS said.