“The primary produce items Customized Brokers has seen enter the U.S. this season have been asparagus from Peru and blueberries from Argentina and Chile,” said Nelly Yunta, vice president of sales, marketing and customer care, liner and logistics business groups for Crowley Maritime Corporation in Jacksonville, FL, and vice president of Customized Brokers, the customs brokerage and consulting division located in Miami.

“Customized Brokers has seen an increase in the volume of asparagus imported from Peru,” she added. “Overall, however, the projected imports are stable in the comparison to other years, but some [movement] has been affected by weather.”

Customized Brokers is currently clearing blueberries, stone fruit, asparagus, soursop, peppers and mixed vegetables.

Chilean blueberries at the Crowley Fresh facility in Miami. (Photo courtesy of Crowley Fresh)Yunta said that on the ocean side, there are additional commodities currently in season, such as tomatoes from Guatemala, blueberries from Chile, melons from Guatemala and Honduras, Cucumbers from Honduras, Mangoes from Peru and peppers from Guatemala.

“Stone fruits from Chile are at the peak of importation,” Yunta said on Jan. 22, “but we are not handling many air shipments. One of our biggest shippers is on Detention Without Physical Examination for importation of nectarines from Chile.”

Section 801(a) of the United States Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act states, “If it appears from the examination of such samples or otherwise that (1) such article has been manufactured, processed, or packed under insanitary conditions . . . or the facilities or controls used for the manufacture, packing, storage, or installation of the device do not conform to the requirements of Section 520(f), or (2) such article is forbidden or restricted in sale in the country in which it was produced or from which it was exported, or (3) such article is adulterated, misbranded, or in violation of Section 505, then such article shall be refused admission.”

Congress authorized the FDA to refuse admission of regulated articles based on information, other than the results of examination of samples, that causes an article to appear to violate the FD&C Act.

Information such as an article’s violative history, among other things, may cause an article to appear adulterated, misbranded, or otherwise in violation of the FD&C Act, as described in Section 801(a), which explicitly authorizes the FDA to refuse admission of articles that appear to violate the Act.

“Offshore exporters are facing the challenge of having to fumigate at origin all air shipments of blueberries from regions 6, 7 and 8 in Chile due to new FDA regulations,” Yunta added.