The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has announced the authorization to import fresh soursop fruit (Annona muricata), also known as guanabana, from Mexico into the continental United States. 

After several pest risk analyses, the government determined that applying one or more designated phytosanitary measures would be sufficient to mitigate the risks of introducing or disseminating plant pests or noxious weeds to import fresh soursop fruit from the country. 

Mexico is a major producer of soursop. The country's soursop production increased rapidly in Mexico up to 2021 when Mexican producers grew 39,905 tons of soursops on 10,012 planted acres. That reflected a 380% increase in production and a 260% increase in planted acreage since 2000.

Mexico's NPPO National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO) estimated that 200 metric tons of fresh soursops would initially be exported to the continental United States each year after receiving the green light. 

APHIS says Mexico's NPPO has "sufficient training to conduct phytosanitary inspections, which are required for the importation of many commodities from Mexico and which are conducted routinely," although several commenters said the country's authorities might lack the personnel expertise to conduct the necessary inspections. 

The organization will require that a phytosanitary inspection is conducted by Mexico's NPPO and a phytosanitary certificate is issued in order for the shipment of soursop to be allowed to enter the United States for irradiation treatment.

Shipments that lack this phytosanitary certificate will be refused entry.

All shipments of soursop are subject to inspection at ports of entry, and an inspector will monitor all irradiation treatments of soursop from Mexico and may inspect articles prior to irradiation for quarantine pests.

APHIS initial document made available a pest list that identified pests of significance that might follow the pathway of the importation of fresh soursop fruit into the continental United States from Mexico.

There are Optatus palmaris Pascoe, the Annonaceae fruits weevil, Neosilba glaberrima, a lance fly, Anastrepha fraterculus (Wiedemann), the South American fruit fly, Anastrepha striata Schiner, the guava fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata, Mediterranean fruit fly or Medfly, Nipaecoccus viridis, the spherical mealybug, Bephratelloides pomorum (Fabricius), the soursop wasp, Oenomaus ortygnus, the aquamarine hairstreak butterfly, Cerconota anonella, the Annona fruit borer, and Talponia batesi Heinrich, a moth.

However, the organization clarifies that "no introduction of a new quarantine pest has occurred in Mexico that would infest soursop fruit since APHIS' analysis was completed."

All soursop shipments are air-shipped to the United States, mainly to Miami, due to the fruit's short shelf-life. 

The organization notes that as more soursop is imported to the United States, "the market may expand outside the Miami area to other metropolitan regions," and in the event of such an expansion, domestic soursop producers might even be at a slight competitive harvest and timely shipping advantage for the delicate fruit within the United States, over longer imported distances.

The phytosanitary conditions to import the fruit are listed in the USDA, APHIS Agricultural Commodity Import Requirements (ACIR) database ( https://acir.aphis.usda.gov/​s/​ ), and in addition to these measures, each shipment must be subject to the general requirements listed in § 319.56-3 that are applicable to the importation of all fruits and vegetables.