The USDA is proposing to offer Chilean grape exporters alternatives to fumigation to access the U.S. market.
Currently, table grapes from Chile must be fumigated with methyl bromide to mitigate for the Chilean false red mite, Brevipalpus chilensis, and the European Grapevine Moth, Lobesia botrana, according to a news release. The USDA is proposing that table grapes from areas in which the moth is either absent or at very low prevalence could be imported into the United States under a systems approach or irradiation.
The systems approach, involving auditing of vineyards and packinghouses, would provide an alternative to the current import requirement of mandatory treatment with methyl bromide fumigation, the USDA said.
The USDA is making its pest risk assessment and commodity import evaluation available to the public for review and comment until Dec. 16, 60 days from date of publication.
In an economic analysis of the proposed rule, the USDA said it is difficult to determine how a switch from fumigation to the systems approach, or to irradiation, would affect producers’ costs.
“We do not anticipate more than a marginal increase in total volume of exports of table grapes from Chile if we authorize the systems approach and irradiation options,” said the USDA. Although Chile is the largest foreign supplier of grapes to the U.S., the USDA noted other countries have increased their shares of the market in recent years. Between 2009 and 2018, Chile’s portion of the U.S. grape import market fell from 76% to 55%.
Since 2018, worldwide imports of grapes into the U.S. have grown by 13% while imports from Chile declined by 16%.
As of 2020, grape imports from Chile represent 41% of total U.S. grape imports. In 2020, Chile exported 317,320 tons of grapes to the U.S.
The economic analysis noted the requirement that Chilean grapes be fumigated with methyl bromide precludes Chile from exporting organic grapes to the United States.
Grapes produced under the provisions of the systems approach, on the other hand, could be marketed as organic if applicable organic certification requirements are met.
Still, the USDA said the analysis conducted by their economists suggests that the impacts on the domestic organic grape market would not be economically significant.
“Organic production in Chile is limited, and the costs associated with compliance are sufficiently high to preclude widespread transition within Chile to organic production,” the agency said. “Consequently, any change in the volume of grapes imported from Chile into the U.S. as a result of this action would likely be small.”
