Northwest Horticultural Council

Country Alerts

As Cherry Export Season Ends, Additional Noncompliant Shipments Detected in Taiwan

This season, the NHC was notified of multiple shipments of cherries exported to Taiwan that tested positive for pesticide MRLs not allowed in that country. This Country Alert summarizes information received to date.

On August 16, the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) notified the NHC that the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) identified 11 additional non-compliance pesticide residue violations on U.S. cherries between July 15 and 31, 2023. These new violations follow the 11 violations the NHC was notified about on July 28 as having occurred between June 14 and July 17, 2023.

FAS informed the NHC on August 22 that there had been a total of 33 violations this season, and that TFDA had announced a 30-day suspension of the exporters with violations. The suspension runs from August 21 through September 20, 2023.

Two Washington-based shippers were responsible for 31 of the 33 violations, with the cause of the violations being the fungicide mefentrifluconazole (Cevya^®), for which there is no established MRL in Taiwan. The other violations came from a Washington-based shipper (with the cause of the violation being pyrethrins, for which there is no established MRL in Taiwan), and a California-based shipper who exceeded the Taiwan MRL for flonicamid (Beleaf^®).

The NHC is working with FAS to generate a compliance plan that would apply to all cherry industry members in an effort to avoid additional industry-wide penalties. FAS must submit the cherry compliance plan to TFDA by September 5, 2023.

8/22/2023