Northwest Horticultural Council

Country Alerts

Korea Increases Number of Pesticide Residues Tested for 2021

Current Situation: Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) will test initial shipments of cherries arriving this year for pesticide residues for every packing house/exporter combination shipping to Korea. If test results are found to be in compliance with Korea’s MRL standards, no further testing will be required.  MFDS has added six chemicals to their existing list of 65 chemicals for which they have commonly tested for in past years on arrival at port of entry.  (The list of 65 MRLs Korea tests for may be found here.)

The six new chemicals MFDS will test for are listed, below, along with the US and Korean MRLs for these materials:

Korea included these six new MRLs because they are aware of reported residue concerns on cherries for these chemicals in other countries within the region.  Korea is known to watch other markets, and if there is a residue issue, they will add it to their own testing list.  They likewise will add chemicals to their testing list if they lower an MRL and want to make sure new residues are compliant.

The tests are to be conducted on a packing house/exporter basis and not a combination of a packing house and an importer, as done in years past. According to MFDS, if packing house XX passes the first testing, then the result will be saved in MFDS’s computerized import inspection system and this computer system will automatically classify future shipments from packing house XX to products subject to document inspection.  When a new importer imports cherries from packing house XX, no testing will be required.

Although this is not welcome news, it appears to be only a single test on initial shipments.

The California industry has impressed upon the U.S. Embassy in Seoul that cherries are highly perishable, and that a quick turn around on tests results is needed so that shipments may be released.

Contact: If you have any questions, please contact Northwest Horticultural Council vice president for scientific affairs, David Epstein, at 509-654-3713.

Updated: 4/28/2021

Northwest Horticultural Council

Country Alerts

Taiwan Increases Pesticide MRL Inspections

Current Situation: Current Situation: Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) has increased pesticide MRL inspection of U.S. apple imports to 20-50 percent of shipments (as of March 15, 2021).  There have been a total of seven non-compliance pesticide residue violations within the past six months, and a total of 11 violations since April 2019.  Shippers are advised to be vigilant with product bound for Taiwan during this period.

The most recent violation (April 27, 2021) was for the fungicide, Penthiopyrad (Fontelis), for which there is no current MRL established in Taiwan.  Previously, there were three non-compliance violations for the insecticide cyantraniliprole (Exirel) (no established MRL) and three for the fungicide pyrimethanil (Penbotec) (MRL = 7 ppm) since December 2020. There were an additional four non-compliance violations with pyrimethanil between April 2019 and March of 2020.

Although the higher rate of residue testing was established for an original observation period of six months to end on September 14, 2021, the rate of inspection for residue testing will potentially be held at the 20-50 percent rate for a full six-month period following the last date of the last non-compliance violation.  Staff at the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service are confirming how long the observation period will last.

If any importer importing a product under the same HS code from the same origin has further detections, the Taiwanese FDA will increase the rate again to 100percent of that importer’s shipments.  This is now the case for one importer.

If no further detections are made during the observation period, TFDA will revert to the standard testing rate of 2-10 percent.  If violations are found, TFDA will increase inspections to 100 percent.  The Northwest Horticultural Council has received confirmation of the change in inspection levels from the American Institute of Taiwan (AIT).

There are no Taiwan MRLs for Cyantraniliprole or Penthiopyrad and therefore the default MRL is 0.01 ppm.

Contact: If you have any questions, please contact Northwest Horticultural Council vice president for scientific affairs, David Epstein, at 509-654-3713.

Updated: 4/29/2021

Northwest Horticultural Council

Country Alerts

Thailand is Banning Chlorpyrifos Residues on Imported Food  June 1, 2021

Current Situation: June 1, 2021 the MRL for both Chlorpyrifos will be the level of detection, 0.01ppm.

Background:

Contact: If you have any questions, please contact David Epstein, vice president for scientific affairs, Northwest Horticultural Council at 509-453-3193.

Updated: 11/3/2020

Northwest Horticultural Council

Current Open Staff Positions

• No Current Open Staff Positions

Northwest Horticultural Council

U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)

On September 30, 2018, Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America reached an agreement to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).  The new agreement, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), will enter into effect only after legislative approval in each country and at some future, yet to be determined, implementation date.

The Northwest Horticultural Council supports ratification by Congress of the USMCA. The trade agreement achieves the NHC’s principle negotiating objectives and provides a solid foundation from which Pacific Northwest tree fruit growers, packers, and shippers will continue their positive and overwhelmingly beneficial trading relationship with customers in these critically important countries.  

The text of the agreement may be found here.  A fact sheet describing the USMCA as it pertains to agriculture may be found here.