This week, the USDA announced in a press release that after 10 years of negotiations, U.S. cherries can now be exported to Western Australia. This will make cherries the first U.S. fresh fruit to gain access to that market.According to the press release, "U.S. cherries from California have had access to the eastern states of Australia since the late 1990s and Washington and Oregon have been permitted to export to the eastern Australian states since 2001. Since that time, negotiations have been ongoing between Biosecurity Australia and USDA to gain access for U.S. cherries to Western Australia, which maintains its own regulations. A final push by importers in Western Australia resulted in the first cherry import into that Australian State last month, and Washington State Fruit Commissions/Northwest Cherry Growers used USDA Market Access Program funds to showcase the products as they arrived in Perth, in Western Australia."
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Posted 9/14/2011
