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U.S. regulators give clearance for Thai fruit imports
Thailand
Friday 29 June 2007
Fresh mangosteens and mangoes from Thailand will soon be available in the United States, the Agriculture Department has decided.
Those fruits - as well as fresh pineapples, rambutans, litchis and longans - had been barred as imports from Thailand because they could harbor harmful insects. They will be allowed in when irradiated at low doses to kill or sterilize the pests.
The new rule, published by the department last Wednesday, is effective July 23. But it will take longer for department inspectors to approve the irradiation and packing facilities and procedures. The first fruit should arrive in September, said Rapibhat Chandarasrivongs, the agricultural minister-counselor at the Thai Embassy in Washington.
Thailand is the world's largest producer of various tropical fruit, including pineapples, rambutans and mangosteens, but it's unclear whether American shoppers will pay enough for them to cover the cost of shipping them by air.
The legendary taste of the mangosteen, so far virtually unavailable fresh in the United States, makes it the one most likely to be eagerly sought here despite the cost.
Canada, which is too cold to worry about tropical pests, imports small amounts of Thai fruit by air, but Thai exporters are hoping to send larger quantities to the United States by sea, Chandarasrivongs said. Most of the mangoes will probably be green, to be eaten firm like a vegetable, he added.
The only fruit Thailand has been permitted to send fresh to the United States previously is the notoriously malodorous durian.
Those fruits - as well as fresh pineapples, rambutans, litchis and longans - had been barred as imports from Thailand because they could harbor harmful insects. They will be allowed in when irradiated at low doses to kill or sterilize the pests.
The new rule, published by the department last Wednesday, is effective July 23. But it will take longer for department inspectors to approve the irradiation and packing facilities and procedures. The first fruit should arrive in September, said Rapibhat Chandarasrivongs, the agricultural minister-counselor at the Thai Embassy in Washington.
Thailand is the world's largest producer of various tropical fruit, including pineapples, rambutans and mangosteens, but it's unclear whether American shoppers will pay enough for them to cover the cost of shipping them by air.
The legendary taste of the mangosteen, so far virtually unavailable fresh in the United States, makes it the one most likely to be eagerly sought here despite the cost.
Canada, which is too cold to worry about tropical pests, imports small amounts of Thai fruit by air, but Thai exporters are hoping to send larger quantities to the United States by sea, Chandarasrivongs said. Most of the mangoes will probably be green, to be eaten firm like a vegetable, he added.
The only fruit Thailand has been permitted to send fresh to the United States previously is the notoriously malodorous durian.
