The Moroccan government has asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to authorize the importation of fresh eggplant for consumption into the U.S.
The USDA published a pest risk assessment that describes potential pests associated with the commodity.
Draft pest assessments are shared by the USDA to determine whether stakeholders have information that might lead the agency to revise the draft assessment before it identifies pest mitigations and proceeds with the commodity import approval process.
The assessment compiled a list of plant pests with regulatory status for the continental U.S. It included pests which are both present in Morocco (on any host) and are known to be associated with eggplant (anywhere in the world). Species on the pest list with a reasonable likelihood of being present on eggplant at the time of harvest could follow the pathway into the U.S. and are examined by USDA to determine their pest risk potential. Pests are considered to be of quarantine significance if they are not present in the U.S., are regulated non-quarantine pests, are pests considered for or under federal official control, or are pests that require evaluation for regulatory action. Pests that meet any of these definitions are considered "quarantine pests" and are candidates to be analyzed.
