Final import risk analysis report for fresh apple fruit from the People’s Republic of China
June 2010
© Commonwealth of Australia 2010
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Cite this report as:
Biosecurity Australia (2010) Final import risk analysis report for fresh apple fruit from the People’s Republic of China. Biosecurity Australia, Canberra.
The Australian Government, acting through Biosecurity Australia, has exercised due care and skill in the preparation and compilation of the information in this publication. Notwithstanding, Biosecurity Australia, its employees and advisers disclaim all liability, including liability for negligence, for any loss, damage, injury, expense or cost incurred by any person as a result of accessing, using or relying upon any of the information in this publication to the maximum extent permitted by law.
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CANBERRA ACT 2601
AUSTRALIA
Internet: www.biosecurityaustralia.gov.au
Cover image:
Apple fruit from a packing house in Shandong province in the People’s Republic of China.
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Final IRA report: fresh apple fruit from China Contents
Contents
Acronyms and abbreviations 9
Abbreviations of units 10
Summary 11
1. Introduction 13
1.1 Australia’s biosecurity policy framework 13
1.2 This import risk analysis 13
2. Method for pest risk analysis 17
2.1 Stage 1: Initiation 17
2.2 Stage 2: Pest risk assessment 18
2.3 Stage 3: Pest risk management 25
3. China’s commercial production practices for apples 27
3.1 Assumptions used to estimate unrestricted risk 27
3.2 Climate in production areas 27
3.3 Commercial production and export information 28
4. Pest risk assessments for quarantine pests 39
4.1 Hawthorn spider mite - Amphitetranychus viennensis 42
4.2 Flat scarlet mite - Cenopalpus pulcher 47
4.3 Apricot weevil - Rhynchites auratus 52
4.4 Japanese pear weevil - Rhynchites heros 57
4.5 Oriental fruit fly - Bactrocera dorsalis 63
4.6 Oystershell scale - Diaspidiotus ostreaeformis 66
4.7 Pear white scale - Lopholeucaspis japonica 69
4.8 Olive scale - Parlartoria oleae 74
4.9 Yanyuan scale - Parlartoria yanyuanensis 79
4.10 Mealybugs - Phenacoccus aceris and Pseudococcus comstocki 84
4.11 Citrophilus mealybug - Pseudococcus calceolariae 89
4.12 Summer fruit tortrix moth - Adoxophyes orana 92
4.13 Apple fruit moth - Argyresthia assimilis 98
4.14 Peach fruit moth - Carposina sasakii 102
4.15 Codling moth - Cydia pomonella 108
4.16 Pyralid moth - Euzophera pyriella 111
4.17 Manchurian fruit moth - Grapholita inopinata 116
4.18 Oriental fruit moth - Grapholita molesta 121
4.19 White fruit moth - Spilonota albicana 124
4.20 Bull’s eye rot - Cryptosporiopsis curvispora 129
4.21 Marssonina blotch – Diplocarpon mali 134
4.22 Japanese apple rust - Gymnosporangium yamadae 139
4.23 Apple brown rot - Monilinia fructigena 144
4.24 Mucor rot – Mucor mucedo and Mucor racemosus 150
4.25 European canker - Neonectria ditissima 157
4.26 Apple blotch - Phyllosticta arbutifolia 159
4.27 Sooty blotch and flyspeck complex 165
4.28 Truncate leaf spot - Truncatella hartigii 171
4.29 Apple scar skin and apple dapple – Apple scar skin viroid 176
4.30 Tobacco necrosis viruses 182
4.31 Risk assessment conclusion 189
5. Pest risk management 193
5.1 Pest risk management measures and phytosanitary procedures 193
5.2 Risk management measures for quarantine pests for the whole of Australia 194
5.3 Risk management measures for quarantine pests for Western Australia only 206
5.4 Operational systems for maintenance and verification of phytosanitary status 209
5.5 Uncategorised and other pests 213
5.6 Audit of protocol 213
5.7 Review of policy 213
Appendix A. Initiation and pest categorisation 217
Appendix A1: Organisms associated with production of apples in China, their status in Australia and their association with fresh apple fruit . 217
Appendix A2: Potential for establishment and spread, and consequences 271
Appendix B. Additional data for quarantine pests 291
Appendix C. Australia’s biosecurity policy framework 311
Appendix D. Status of fire blight in China 317
Glossary 321
Reference list 323
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Final IRA report: fresh apple fruit from China Map of Australia
Map of Australia
A guide to Australia’s bio-climate zones
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Final IRA report: fresh apple fruit from China Acronyms and abbreviatons
Acronyms and abbreviations
Term or abbreviation / DefinitionABS / Australian Bureau of Statistics
ALOP / appropriate level of protection
APAL / Apple & Pear Australia Limited
APPD / Australian Plant Pest Database
APVMA / Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority
AQIS / Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service
AQSIQ / General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People’s Republic of China (formerly CIQSA)
BAA / Biosecurity Australia Advice
BAPM / Biosecurity Australia Policy Memorandum
BSG / Biosecurity Services Group
CIQ / China Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau
CIQSA / State Administration for Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine of the People’s Republic of China (now AQSIQ)
CSIRO / Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
CT / concentration time
DAFF / Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
DAFWA / Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia (formerly DAWA: Department of Agriculture, Western Australia)
EP / existing policy
FAO / Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations
FSANZ / Food Standards Australia and New Zealand
IDM / Integrated Disease Management
IPM / Integrated Pest Management
IPPC / International Plant Protection Convention
IRA / import risk analysis
ISPM / International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures
NPPO / National Plant Protection Organisation
NSW / New South Wales
NT / Northern Territory
NZ / New Zealand
PRA / pest risk analysis
Qld / Queensland
SA / South Australia
SPS / sanitary and phytosanitary
Tas. / Tasmania
USA / United States of America
USDA / United States Department of Agriculture
Vic. / Victoria
WA / Western Australia
Abbreviations of units
Term or abbreviation / DefinitionºC / degree Celsius
ºF / degree Fahrenheit
kg / kilogram
ha / hectare
km / kilometre
kPa / kilopascal
m / metre
MT / metric tons
mu / unit of area used in China (one fifteenth of a hectare)
μm / micrometre (one millionth of a metre)
ml / millilitre
mm / millimetre
ppm / parts per million
s / second
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Final IRA report: fresh apple fruit from China Summary
Summary
This import risk analysis (IRA) finalises a proposal from the People’s Republic of China (China) for market access to Australia for fresh apple fruit.
Australia permits the importation of a variety of pome fruit (apples and pears) for human consumption provided they meet Australia’s quarantine requirements, including pears from China, Korea and Japan, and apples from Japan and New Zealand.
This final IRA report recommends that the importation of fresh apple fruit from all commercial production areas of China be permitted, subject to a range of quarantine conditions, including verification of pest status in the areas nominated by China to export apple fruit to Australia. To date Biosecurity Australia has visited seven of the nine areas nominated: Beijing, Gansu, Hebei, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Shandong and Shanxi. The remaining two, Henan and Ningxia, and any additional areas nominated by China to export apple fruit to Australia in the future, will also require verification of their pest status before export can occur.
The report takes into account the stakeholders’ comments on the 2008 issues paper and the 2009 draft import risk analysis report. A draft report revised after consideration of stakeholders’ comments was reviewed by the Eminent Scientists Group.
The report identifies 16 pests (11 arthropods and 5 diseases) that require quarantine measures to manage risks to a very low level in order to achieve Australia’s appropriate level of protection (ALOP). The arthropods include: hawthorn spider mite; flat scarlet mite; Oriental fruit fly; Comstock’s mealybug; apple mealybug; summerfruit tortrix moth; peach fruit moth; codling moth; pyralid moth; Manchurian fruit moth and white fruit moth. The diseases include: Japanese apple rust; marssonina blotch; apple brown rot; European canker and apple blotch.
The recommended quarantine measures take account of regional differences. Codling moth has been identified as a quarantine pest for Western Australia.
The recommended quarantine measures are a combination of risk management measures and operational systems that will reduce the risk associated with the importation of fresh apple fruit from China into Australia to achieve Australia’s ALOP, specifically:
· area freedom for Oriental fruit fly, codling moth, European canker and apple brown rot
· orchard control and surveillance, and fruit bagging for other pests
· pressurised air blasting and inspection for mealybugs and mites and remedial action if quarantine pests are detected
· a supporting operational system to maintain and verify the phytosanitary status of consignments. The Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) will verify that the recommended phytosanitary measures have occurred and an AQIS officer will be present under a pre-clearance arrangement to inspect and verify pest freedom prior to export.
Biosecurity Australia has made a number of changes to the risk analysis following consideration of stakeholder comments on the draft IRA report. These changes include:
· addition of 32 arthropod and 12 pathogen pests to the pest categorisation, for which seven new risk assessments have been included
· for sooty blotch and flyspeck fungal complex – a reduction in the probability of importation to ‘moderate’ and a reduction in the consequences to ‘very low’. The resulting unrestricted risk estimate of ‘very low’ now achieves Australian’s ALOP. Therefore, specific risk management measures are not required for these fungi, and the proposed disinfection treatment in the packing house has been removed
· for apple scar skin viroid – a reduction in the probability of importation to ‘moderate’ with an increase in the consequences to ‘moderate’, resulting in an unrestricted risk estimate of ‘very low’ which still achieves Australia’s ALOP
· for apple brown rot – sourcing apples from export orchards free of the disease, that is to establish pest free places of production (orchard freedom), has been recommended as a suitable measure to reduce the risk associated with latent infection
· minor changes to the rating for probability of importation, distribution, establishment, spread, or consequences for a number of other pests but resulting in no change to the unrestricted risk estimate
· for apple scab – previously identified as a regional quarantine pest for Western Australia, this pest is now recognised as present in Western Australia and the state legislation has been amended to revoke restrictions on hosts imported. Therefore, apple scab has been removed from the IRA as a regional quarantine pest.
· inclusion of Drosophila suzukii for assessment in the pest categorisation table indicating that this pest is currently being assessed in a separate pest-initiated pest risk analysis.
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Final IRA report: fresh apple fruit from China Introduction
1. Introduction
1.1 Australia’s biosecurity policy framework
Australia's biosecurity policies aim to protect Australia against the risks that may arise from exotic pests[1] entering, establishing and spreading in Australia, thereby threatening Australia's unique flora and fauna, as well as those agricultural industries that are relatively free from serious pests.
The import risk analysis (IRA) process is an important part of Australia's biosecurity policies. It enables the Australian government to formally consider the risks that could be associated with proposals to import new products into Australia. If the risks are found to exceed Australia’s appropriate level of protection (ALOP), risk management measures are proposed to reduce the risks to an acceptable level. If it is not possible to reduce the risks to an acceptable level, then no trade will be allowed.
Successive Australian governments have maintained a conservative, but not a zerorisk, approach to the management of quarantine risks. This approach is expressed in terms of Australia's ALOP, which reflects community expectations through government policy and is currently described as providing a high level of protection aimed at reducing risk to a very low level, but not to zero.
Australia’s IRAs are undertaken by Biosecurity Australia using teams of technical and scientific experts in relevant fields, and involving consultation with stakeholders at various stages during the process. Biosecurity Australia provides recommendations for animal and plant quarantine policy to Australia’s Director of Animal and Plant Quarantine (the Secretary of the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry). The director or delegate is responsible for determining whether or not an importation can be permitted under the Quarantine Act 1908, and if so, under what conditions. The Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) is responsible for implementing appropriate risk management measures.
More information about Australia’s biosecurity framework is provided in Appendix C of this report and in the Import Risk Analysis Handbook 2007(update 2009) located on the Biosecurity Australia website www.biosecurityaustralia.gov.au.
1.2 This import risk analysis
1.2.1 Background
The State Administration for Entry–Exit Inspection and Quarantine of the People’s Republic of China (CIQSA), now known as the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People’s Republic of China (AQSIQ), requested market access to Australia for fresh apple fruit (Malus domestica Borkh.) in 2001.
Initially, access was sought for production areas in the provinces of Shaanxi (CIQSA 2001a) and Shandong (CIQSA 2001c). In 2004, AQSIQ requested that the production areas be extended to cover the provinces of Hebei and Laioning, and then in 2005, all commercial production areas of China (AQSIQ 2005).
1.2.2 Scope
The scope of this IRA is to consider quarantine risks associated with the importation of commercially produced individual fresh mature apple fruit, free of trash, from China into Australia as described in Section 3. This IRA pertains to all commercial apple producing provinces, and all commercially produced apple cultivars, in China.
Previous risk analyses for the importation of pears from China have been taken into account in this IRA in Sections 4 and 5.
1.2.3 Existing policy