Friday, a note signed by the agronomist Pierre-Guy Lafontant, Director General of the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development, announces to the attention of all traders, importers, producers and the entire population, the temporary import ban on a variety of fruits and vegetables from the Dominican Republic.

This prohibition is intended to prevent the country from being contaminated by the "Mediterranean Fruit Fly" [Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann)], which was detected in an agricultural area near Punta Cana airport in the Dominican Republic.

List of forbidden fruit :

Lemon, orange, chadeque, grapefruit, mandarin, lack, apple, pear, grape, mamey (Mamey sapote) karambole, breadfruit, "lam veritab", "sapotiy", pomegranate, "kachiman" (Annona reticulata), cherry, soursop, avocado, coffee, papaya, "kayimit", watermelon, melon, pomegranate, banana and "Fig Bannan".

List of prohibited vegetables :

Tomato, eggplant, sweet and hot pepper, cucumber and other fruits and vegetables of the same family.

The Ministry of Agriculture already has a program to control fruit flies, which was already present in Haiti. This program will be used to fight against the Mediterranean fruit fly in case where its presence would be detected in Haiti.

The Ministry will keep the public informed of developments. Note that these flies are harmless to the health of people and animals.

Learn more about :

This fly is from the same family as the fruit fly that we already had in the country. It causes the same damage as the fruit fly which spoils fruit, by laying eggs in fruits rendering them unfit for sale. This parasite can cause a lot of damage and destroyed 100% of a crop which may require producers to spend a lot to control the fly and try to treat the fruit before selling them. In areas/regions/countries where the fly is present, the import or export of agricultural products capable of carrying the eggs or to fly, are still prohibited.

HL/ HaitiLibre