Washington, D.C – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is amending its regulations to allow commercial imports of bellflower (Campanula spp.) plants for planting in approved growing media from Denmark. After careful analysis, APHIS scientists have determined that these plants can be safely imported into the United States under a systems approach.
The systems approach will protect against the introduction of plant pests and diseases and requires a number of safeguards to be applied across the plant production continuum to effectively reduce any risk. Those safeguards include: inspection of mother stock plants, production greenhouses constructed according to approved specifications, plants grown on raised benches, compliance with facility sanitation measures, and plants grown and exported in approved growing media. Additionally, growers will need to have a compliance agreement with Denmark’s national plant protection organization. All shipments will require a phytosanitary certificate with an additional declaration stating that the plants have been inspected and found to be free of quarantine pests and were produced in accordance with the proposed requirements.
The rule becomes effective on April 16, 2018, thirty days after publication in the Federal Register.
Source: USDA APHIS