11/23/05 Grace for Taiwan apple shipments

Taiwan last week announced a second shipment of U.S. apples contained coddling moth larvae. That means under current "three strikes" protocol, another detection of coddling moth or larvae in apple shipments would constitute in Taiwan ending imports of American apples. A shipment by a North Central Washington packing house is believed to have triggered the second strike. Mark Powers of the Northwest Horticultural Council joined both federal and state officials to investigate the packing house. U.S.D.A.'s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has until the end of the week to send Taiwan a report of its findings, with Taiwan then deciding whether or not to reinstate the packing house for shipments. Powers says it appears the packer followed current protocol. And Powers believes overall the industry follows the plan agreed upon by the U.S. and Taiwan, but has to deal with both individual detections and Taiwan's strict coddling moth protections and sanctions for violations. But Powers also notes that while the investigation and report is put together, the U.S. apple industry has a limited grace period as far as apple shipments. POWERS: Basically, we are within a one week period in which A.P.H.I.S. can make any changes to the work plan it thinks would be helpful. And during that time, when phytosanitary certificates are issued, the product under that time frame would not be jeopardy for the third strike. In other words, any product that is currently being shipped upon arrival if a coddling moth was detected, it wouldn't be strike three.