The Agricultural and Livestock Service (SAG) has redoubled its efforts to safeguard Chilean agriculture towards the specter of the fruit fly, a pest that places the nation’s fruit manufacturing in danger. By way of a collection of strategic measures, the service is making important progress in detecting and eradicating this harmful pest.
In 2024, a staff of 1,026 individuals has been deployed devoted to the combat towards Ceratitis capitata, higher generally known as the fruit fly. With greater than 10,288 traps put in in key areas, practically 300,000 lure checks have been carried out in additional than 18,000 sampled places all through the nation. This intense surveillance work has allowed 34 tons of fruit to be analyzed in specialised laboratories to detect doable infestations.
One of the modern methods carried out is using the Sterile Insect Approach (SIT), via which sterilized pupae are launched each week. In 2024, nearly 14 million pupae have been launched in campaigns carried out in Arica, San Esteban, Los Andes, San Bernardo, Lo Espejo and Chimbarongo. This system has confirmed to be extremely efficient in lowering fruit fly populations in a sustainable method.
SAG Nationwide Director José Guajardo Reyes highlighted the significance of those measures: “The safety of our agriculture is crucial for Chile’s financial growth and meals safety. Coordinated actions and using superior applied sciences, such because the Sterile Insect Approach, enable us to efficiently confront threats from pests such because the fruit fly.”
As well as, the SAG has labored onerous to manage the entry of high-risk agricultural merchandise. 86,000 kilos of animal and/or plant merchandise have been retained at border controls, whereas 263,000 kilos of illegally imported merchandise have been intercepted at unauthorized crossings. Throughout 2023, with the help of Carabineros, greater than 1 million kilos of high-risk merchandise have been intercepted.
To mitigate the dangers of unlawful entry of agricultural merchandise, the SAG has established three intermediate sanitary controls in Cuya, Quillagua and El Loa. These strategic factors enable for steady and efficient surveillance, guaranteeing the safety of the nation’s agricultural sources.
“In 1995, Chile was declared freed from fruit flies of quarantine significance. We’re the one nation freed from all flies within the area and, on a continental stage, the one one freed from Ceratitis capitata. Sustaining this standing is our problem,” mentioned Guajardo.
It’s price noting that within the 2020/2021 agricultural 12 months, Chile exported greater than 2.8 million tons of recent fruit, with a complete worth of shut to six.5 billion US {dollars}. This worth contains a variety of recent fruits, corresponding to grapes, cherries, blueberries, apples, avocados, amongst others.
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