Dear Lychee growers

The 2016/17 lychee season will be Year 2 of the 3 Year Pilot Program to export Australian Lychees to the USA (with the exception of the state of Florida).

As you are aware, no Australian lychees were exported to the US in Year 1. This was mainly due to the lack of compatible chemicals approved for lychee in both Australia & the US. This did make it extremely difficult for Year 1 nominated growers to manage their registered US blocks with the limited number of approved chemicals. 

We are now in Year 2 of the Pilot Program and ALGA continues to work with DoA, HIA & USDA to ensure sufficient chemicals are approved for use in lychee and are compatible both in Australia & the US.

Abamectin for the control of mites in lychee was approved in Australia during the 2015/16 lychee season but was not approved in the US in time for Year 1 exports. The good news is that for exporting Australian lychee to the US in Year 2, we now have the use of Abamectin as it was approved in the US in May 2016. The US EPA has established an MRL for Abamectin in lychee at 0.01 mg/kg. The following information is now on the Global MRL database:

United States / Abamectin / Lychee (litchi)
Published Regulations for MRLs Currently in Effect
Lychee
0.01 ppm
Residue Definition
Avermectin B1 and its delta-8,9-isomer: Tolerances are established for residues of abamectin, including its metabolites and degradates. Compliance with the tolerance levels is to be determined by measuring only avermectin B1 a mixture of avermectins containing greater than or equal to 80% avermectin B1 a (5-O-demethyl avermectin A1) and less than or equal to 20% avermectin B1b (5-O-demethyl-25-de(1-methylpropyl)-25-(1-methylethyl) avermectin A1) and its delta-8,9-isomer.

Control of Anthracnose/pepper spot was also an issue for lychee exports to the US as none of the Australian registered lychee chemicals had MRL’s in the US. ALGA is hopeful of having Switch registered in time for Year 2 growers but will know more after the first lychee SIAP meeting with HIA in June 2016.

 As Year 2 will still be a trial and learning period, ALGA believes Year 2 should progress similar to Year 1 with a small number of growers and agents taking part in the US export Pilot Program. The same conditions will apply, growers will need to register their orchards, packhouse and blocks through ALGA, DoA will arrange to audit growers before approving their registrations. Once approved, the OWP guidelines will need to be strictly adhered to, if a shipment passes inspection by Australian DoA inspectors but is rejected in the US then the whole shipment will be destroyed. As advised in Year 1, the shipment cannot be sprayed or redirected to another destination and there will be no $ returns to the grower or the agent.

ALGA has received the Industry Advice Notice (IAN) for Year 2 and the due date for applications to register orchard/packhouse/blocks will be 16th June 2016 with audits commencing 29th August 2016 and 15th July 2016 with audits commencing 26th September 2016.