The Colombian Agricultural Institute (ICA) and the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) have made progress in efforts to allow market entry of Hass avocados from the South American country.

According to a release from ICA, APHIS is in the process of establishing phytosanitary requirements to allow the product's entry.

A risk analysis conducted by the U.S. with participation from ICA identified three quarantine pests found in parts of the country that could restrict that trade of Hass avocado exports: avocado seed moth, heilipus lauri and heilipus trifasciatus.

ICA said it would work together with growers to certify farms as pest free, establishing control efforts and actions to eradicate pests in affected properties.

"Growers who want to export Hass avocados must have crops that are free of quarantine pests. Growers should implement pest monitoring and adopt a seres of measures to guarantee product health, among other aspects," ICA general manager Luis Humberto Martínez Lacouture said in the release.

In conjunction with this, a traceability system must be created involving the registration of exporting farms and packhouses with ICA, along with rist mitigation measures that are carried through from the orchard through to export.

The country's departments with the highest potential for Hass avocado production and export have ben slated as Antioquia, Tolima and Valle del Cauca.

The country has about 6,300 hectares of Hass avocado production, growing 27,532 metric tons (MT) annually.

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