Japan Grant California Plums

The California AG today. I'm Mike Stephens. Japan grants market access to California Plum's. United States Department of Agriculture announced that Japan has granted market access for California plum's, eliminating the barriers, keeping California plums out of the Japanese market. It's required multiple rounds of technical negotiations. Caroline Stringer, Director of the California Fresh Fruit Association, describes how many agencies were involved.

Main players were USDA, APHIS, that's an animal plant health inspection service. So they lead the official negotiation with their counterparts in Japan and in Japan. It's MAFF, and that's Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. So those are the two official government to government negotiations. And then on behalf of industry, DFA worked with APHIS directly. Industry has to ask the US government to initiate access.

There were other agencies that had supporting roles,

USDA, particularly RS, the Research Service, and then the counties of Fresno and Tulare. Those are the folks that have the on the ground knowledge of what's going to work and not going to work in terms of protocols, practices put in place to ensure that the integrity of the consignments are pest free. So ensure that consignments meet the Japanese standard. You're working with people from APHIS and the county that the paker is in.