China Announces Phytosanitary Requirements for Fresh Vietnamese Passion Fruit

On April 22, the General Administration of Customs of China issued an announcement describing the phytosanitary requirements for importing fresh passion fruit from Vietnam.

Almost three years ago, on July 1, 2022, the GACC permitted the pilot import of Vietnamese passion fruit into China, designating the Pingxiang and Dongxing border crossings in Guangxi province as approved entry points. One month later, the GACC expanded its list of allowed entry points to include all border crossings in Guangxi. On Nov. 27 of the same year, the first shipment of passion fruit, weighing over 18.5 metric tons, successfully cleared customs through the Friendship Pass crossing in Pingxiang for processing purposes.

According to the GACC announcement, a total of five quarantine pests of concern have been identified for imports of fresh Vietnamese passion fruit (Passiflora edulis). These include the guava fruit fly (Bactrocera correcta), passionvine mealybug (Planococcus minor), long-tailed mealybug (Pseudococcus longispinus), diplodia pod rot of cocoa (Lasiodiplodia theobromae) and the root rot pathogen Globisporangium splendens.

The announcement also states that orchards intending to export fresh passion fruit to China must establish a traceability system and adhere to good agricultural practices and integrated pest management techniques. During the packing process, fresh passion fruit destined for China must undergo procedures including the removal of diseased or deformed fruits, sorting, grading and cleaning to ensure the absence of insects, mites, rotten fruits, branches, leaves, roots and soil.

During the first year after the announcement takes effect, Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is required to take random samples of 2% of passion fruit bound for China to check for the presence of pests of concern. The required sampling rate will be reduced to 1% if there are no quarantine problems for one year. The detection of contaminated passion fruit will result in rejection of the entire shipment by China, or possibly even the suspension of imports for the remainder of the season.

Image: Pixabay

This article was translated from Chinese. Read the original article.