In a statement received on November 16, the president of the California Table Grape Commission, Kathleen Nave, responded to the pressure being exerted by the Chilean table grape industry, supported by the Minister of Agriculture, Esteban Valenzuela, and importers in the U.S. to approve the System Approach that would allow table grapes exported from the regions of Atacama, Coquimbo and Valparaiso to be exported without methyl bromide fumigation.
Kathleen Nave notes that the California industry is encouraging USDA Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to permanently abandon the approval of this "risky proposal."
"The Chilean proposal abandons an empirically successful treatment regime in favor of an ill-defined System Approach, through which many invasive pests could travel. The change would introduce a significant risk of potentially devastating infestations in wine, raisin, and table grape crops throughout the country," Nave says.
In the statement, Nave assures that "Chile has perfectly adequate access to the U.S. market," in response to recent and very public pressure from Chilean importers for the System Approach to be published by USDA as a final step in time for the start of the Chilean season.
"Chilean table grape growers have been shipping under the fumigation requirement for decades. The average volume of table grapes over the last three years from Chile to the United States is 40 million 18-pound boxes, so the idea that Chilean producers will not be able to supply the U.S. market without the approval of this new system is simply not true."
Nave concludes by assuring that "U.S. producers do not want this system to be implemented and the fact that Chilean importers want it should hold no weight for the USDA."
