A fig shipment was intercepted from Jordan found to have Mediterranean Fruit Fly on it. Can you imagine the crop losses if that had gotten in and not been contained? The strict import laws exist for reasons. Protection of American agriculture is worth more than getting some fruit tree from overseas that isn’t yet available in the US.
OK, off my soap box now.
He was bringing in fruit, a huge no no. Often I have seen people that look like long term travelers for a business or whatever eat fruit just before landing. Anyway this guy was not bringing in cuttings, or trying to bring in a new cultivar of figs. I like the focus on fruit as I often bring in way more booze than allowed, and they never say anything. Many products are not sold here, such as rum cream from Jamaica. They could steal the Irish cream market away if sold here. I wish it was sold here! Also in Mexico many labels have no distributor here. Some excellent tequila to be had! I also buy my blood pressure meds in Mexico, so much cheaper there. Last time I bought two years worth.
Alcohol should be smuggled in cake form. Rum cake, drooooooool…
Scionwood can also be hazardous. Canada now has plum pox because it showed up there a few years ago from Europe, and citrus greening showed up recently in the US.
Some extended family of mine lives in Adams County where the plum pox outbreak occurred. So many peach orchards were ripped out.
I certainly understand with over 150 invasive species in the Great Lakes, it’s nothing like when i was a kid. A darn shame too. No wood should be brought here, Bringing fruit happens daily, and is the problem in the sense very few bring scion compared to fruit.Plus you can bring scion in, many do all the time. I read many accounts on the figs forum of people bringing in scion legally. If you must, do it right.
I worked for several steamship agencies and one of the things I had to do was to prepare a copy
of the freight manifest and present it to USDA. They would check every shipment and if there were
questions or concerns, they would be noted on a sheet (faxed to us, as the time) which put them on
hold. Sometimes it only required a copy of the invoice (with details on where it was from, etc) and
others it had to be examined, fumigated (brassware from India and woods from all over) or outright
denied entry (a shipment of spices of dubious origin). Their office had a glass case showing all the
bugs which had been found on import shipments and info on how damaging they were to US food and forest.
I had originally worked for a honey company that imported bulk honey (55 gal drums) from China and every container had to be examined (‘tailgate’–the back doors opened and that area checked for live or dead bees) for signs of bees with varroa mites–same mites that caused so much damage to the US apiary business.
I read about the USDA controls at airports and it wasn’t until I had gone overseas and returned that I got to see the ‘Beagle Brigade’ (beagles are esp. good for sniffing out foodstuffs) in action and also seen people stopped and their luggage searched extensively–often with bad results. It was often people returning from their country of origin wanting to bring back something of ‘home’ either for themselves or family members. Some people just didn’t get the idea of how much damage ‘just one or two pieces of fruit’ could cause.
I ended up vacationing in Europe (studying history) and saw over and over again how people didn’t bother to read up what they could and couldn’t bring back (customs has a handy guide, Know Before You Go) so they’d like about something unimportant (prepared mustards in jars) while other would bring in fresh cheeses or pates as if they were fine (not so…at all).
I’d usually bring back chocolates (bars, for people at work) and wine (for myself) and declare both.
So I’d need to go through the USDA line but it doesn’t take long and I am a believer in full compliance when it comes to things like this. It also meant I got to see some of the people who got caught (the mustard woman–it was legal but she got chewed out --politely–for not declaring it. The whole time she was in line at customs she had been talking about not declaring them. Wouldn’t surprise me if a customs agent didn’t give the heads-up to USDA.
Laws were passed and regulations established so wood products which have not been dried and painted have to undergo special treatments (and marked accordingly) before they can be used for imports into the US.
Ocean import manifesting is all done electronically so USDA can examine the manifests before the cargo is loaded to a ship which somewhat streamlines the processing at the US port.
But the controls at US airports are as important as, if not more so, the ocean cargo. Importers and exporters are business people. Tourists who are only thinking of themselves can be more dangerous because the volume is so high.
Thanks for listening