Protecting Fruit Shipments Part 2

Protecting Fruit Shipments Part 2. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Washington Congressman Doc Hastings has drafted a letter to the Transportation Security Administration asking them to consider perishable fruits and vegetables and their unique shipping needs when implementing the Certified Cargo Screening Program. 

HASTINGS: The burden that is placed on the grower and the fact that these cherries are shipped on commercial flights because obviously that is the least expensive way to get them over there is a regularly scheduled flight, there need to be a way to have that screening that takes into consideration the cost.

Perishable fruits like cherries need to be shipped within a very short window.

HASTINGS: Cherries are packed at various plants and shipped right to the point of demarcation. I think there has to be a realization of this. The point is this 100% screening may work when you deal with luggage that everyone sees when they carry on luggage on an airplane but it’s a little bit different from the commercial activity and I think that needs to be taken into consideration.

Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington and Oregon’s Greg Walden have joined Hastings in appealing to the TSA to find a way to expedite the process of screening palates of fruits and vegetable that can quickly spoil.

HASTINGS: And that’s the point when you are dealing with perishable products you have a time frame where if it gets slowed down at all it becomes worth a whole lot less if not worthless.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.