The United States has lifted restrictions related to the tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV) for the import of fresh Mexican tomatoes, as announced by the Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The National Service for Agrifood Health, Safety, and Quality (Senasica, by its acronym in Spanish) reported that based on the analysis conducted by U.S. phytosanitary specialists, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued Federal Order DA-2024-21. This regulation only applies to the import of propagative material for tomatoes and peppers, including seeds, and excludes fresh products.
As of June 17, Mexican producers exporting tomatoes to the U.S. will no longer require an inspection certificate for their shipments, facilitating and speeding up the border crossing process.
This resolution comes after four years of technical discussions with the USDA, which updated the phytosanitary requirements for importing hosts of ToBRFV on June 3, 2020. The update required Mexican producers to include a certificate with their shipments stating that their product was inspected and showed no symptoms of the tomato brown rugose fruit virus.
Additionally, the certificate had to include the inspection date, the name, title, and signature of the person issuing the inspection certificate, as well as the names and addresses of the producer and packer.
Currently, the tomato industry generates more than 400,000 direct jobs and one million indirect jobs in the country.