California admits error in rejecting 10 Mexican avocado loads
California admits error in rejecting 10 Mexican avocado loads
California Department of Food & Agriculture inspectors were right on one count and wrong on 10 counts when they rejected 11 loads of Mexican Hass avocados crossing into the state on Friday, Feb. 16.
Effective Feb. 1, the U.S. Department of Agriculture allows Mexican-grown Hass avocados to enter California under a strict protocol designed to assure that no exotic pests potentially harmful to California's avocado industry would be imported with the fruit.
"Through Friday, we had rejected 11 out of 44 loads" of Mexican avocados coming into the state, Steve Lyle, CDFA's director of public affairs, told The Produce News on Wednesday, Feb. 21. The department released that information Feb. 16, stating that the reason for the rejection was the detection of an invasive pest -- the armored scale insect -- in the loads. Several Internet news sources quickly picked up the story.
However, the department now acknowledges that there was only one finding of an invasive pest in one load. The scales found in the other 10 loads were not invasive, but rather were native to California.
"The entomologist who identified those scales went back and checked the work" after the weekend and found that in every case but one "the pests were, in fact native to California. Therefore, [10 of] the loads which were rejected should not have been rejected," he said. "So the story isn't what it seemed last Friday."
Unfortunately, the loads were "rejected and diverted before we detected the error," Mr. Lyle said. "It is unfortunate, and we regret the error, but one point that we want to make is that we erred on the side of caution here. If you want to make an error, erring on the side of caution is preferable to the opposite."
The department continues to inspect "every commercial shipment of Hass avocados" that comes into the state through CDFA checkpoints, he said. "If we find invasives, we will reject the load, and if we don't find invasives, we will allow it in."
Effective Feb. 1, the U.S. Department of Agriculture allows Mexican-grown Hass avocados to enter California under a strict protocol designed to assure that no exotic pests potentially harmful to California's avocado industry would be imported with the fruit.
"Through Friday, we had rejected 11 out of 44 loads" of Mexican avocados coming into the state, Steve Lyle, CDFA's director of public affairs, told The Produce News on Wednesday, Feb. 21. The department released that information Feb. 16, stating that the reason for the rejection was the detection of an invasive pest -- the armored scale insect -- in the loads. Several Internet news sources quickly picked up the story.
However, the department now acknowledges that there was only one finding of an invasive pest in one load. The scales found in the other 10 loads were not invasive, but rather were native to California.
"The entomologist who identified those scales went back and checked the work" after the weekend and found that in every case but one "the pests were, in fact native to California. Therefore, [10 of] the loads which were rejected should not have been rejected," he said. "So the story isn't what it seemed last Friday."
Unfortunately, the loads were "rejected and diverted before we detected the error," Mr. Lyle said. "It is unfortunate, and we regret the error, but one point that we want to make is that we erred on the side of caution here. If you want to make an error, erring on the side of caution is preferable to the opposite."
The department continues to inspect "every commercial shipment of Hass avocados" that comes into the state through CDFA checkpoints, he said. "If we find invasives, we will reject the load, and if we don't find invasives, we will allow it in."
