Last season, for the first time in five or six decades, fresh fruit was permitted to arrive into the United States from South America and Central America under a pilot program.

Previously, standards were not at the level they are today: there was a lack of refrigeration and there were different import protocols in place to ensure pests and diseases that could damage domestic crops did not enter the U.S.

That changed last year when the U.S. Department of Agriculture agreed to a trial program that was initiated in effort by the Florida Perishables Trade Coalition, commonly referred to as FPTC, a non-profit association formed in 2012.

The coalition’s founding mission was and remains to focus the collective experience and efforts of industry leaders from throughout Florida to increase trade in perishable products through the state’s airports and seaports.

Nelly Yunta, vice president of Customized Brokers, a licensed brokerage company headquartered in Miami, has been involved in the coalition since its beginning and with its success in getting the pilot program approved.

“The USDA sets regulations on what products come into the country and how,” explained Yunta. “Some of the products have a higher propensity to have insects and so are restricted from entering at certain ports because they place domestic products at risk.”

Last season’s pilot program was conducted in a very careful and selective way. The USDA and FPTC agreed that it should involve only two products — grapes and blueberries — and only from two countries — Peru and Uruguay. The import of these items was also restricted in destination. They were only allowed into two U.S. ports: Port Everglades and PortMiami.

The pilot program began in October 2013. On Sept. 8 of this year, Yunta told The Produce News that she was happy to report that the program went extremely well.

“It was a small pilot program with only 17 containers entering Florida ports last year, but there were no mentionable issues and things went smoothly,” she said. “It was a really good beginning.

“And because it was a success the USDA lifted the ‘pilot’ terminology and it is now no longer considered a pilot program by the USDA, but just business as usual with no extraordinary conditions,” she added.

The program is not only continuing into the future, but the FPTC has already requested that the USDA allow it to be expanded to other products and from additional countries this season. At the time she spoke with The Produce News, Yunta said the FPTC was waiting for the USDA’s decision.

“In addition to what was approved for the pilot program, we have requested approval for the arrival into Southern ports for citrus from Peru; citrus, apples and pears from Uruguay; and blueberries, apples and pears from Argentina,” she said.

It took another Southern port only a short time to jump on the new import regulation opportunity. Savannah, GA, now has a pilot program in place for this year for grapes from Brazil, and blueberries, citrus and grapes from Peru.

“We are meeting with professionals at the port of Savannah in late September to make sure that they and we have all of the information necessary and that all the details are in place so that we can service our customers flawlessly as products arrive into the port,” said Yunta. “Overall it really is just business as usual. We’re happy that it has gone so well and we look forward to the future with more imports into the south.”