Dealing with MRL's
Dealing With MRL’s. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.
Around the globe, many countries accept varying levels of pesticide residue or MRL’s. Mike Willett, Vice President for Scientific Affairs for the NW Hort Council says it’s up to the individual countries but it may appear to be a bargaining ploy.
WILLETT: If you are looking at it from a standpoint of is someone trying to keep us out of a market, yea, it could be used that way. I think that unfortunately what we are seeing particularly in Pacific Rim there’s lots of concerns with the food safety particularly given issues that have arisen in
Willett says that for the most part those regulations are a blanket.
WILLETT: And so these countries in the Pacific Rim that trade with China have real concerns about food safety so they put rules in place that catch maybe not only Chinese exporters but the whole rest of the world if they don’t have a comprehensive system in place before they start enforcing it.
A lot of the issue boils down to the pace that other countries adopt MRL’s.
WILLETT: The challenge that growers in the
We’ll continue this topic on Monday.
That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.