APHIS’ Plant Protection and Quarantine Expands Risk-Based Sampling for Bananas and Plantains at U.S. Ports of Entry

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APHIS’ Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will expand the Risk-Based Sampling at Ports of Entry (RBS POE) program for fresh banana and plantain shipments starting the week of March 25, 2024. The goals of RBS POE are to reduce inspections on entities importing commodities compliant with current pest and disease regulations and provide incentives for producers to increase the quality of their goods.

The expanded RBS POE combinations (Conveyance + Commodity + Country of origin) are as follows:

Conveyance

Commodity

Country of Origin

Maritime only

Banana

Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru

Maritime only

Plantain

Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru

There are no changes to the required entry paperwork, however PPQ and CBP recommend trading partners file entry paperwork prior to arrival if possible and include APHIS Core Message Set data to ensure their shipments are processed according to RBS POE procedures.  

For questions about this announcement please contact the Risk-Based Sampling at Ports of Entry Team at: E-mail: PPQ.RBS@USDA.GOV or the CBP Information Center at https://help.cbp.gov/s/questions

For more information on Risk Based Sampling please visit our website: USDA APHIS | Risk-Based Sampling