On April 22 and 23rd, BCI’s Matt Lantz attended a meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, seeking to develop a system in the region to establish import pesticide maximum residue levels (#MRLs).
The meeting is part of USDA’s Assisting Specialty Crop Exports (hashtag#ASCE) program, which is designed to assist U.S. specialty crop farmers with their exports. This part of the ASCE program, organized by CABI, seeks to broaden the MRL policies in the region. Although all countries in Southeast Asia have MRL policies, many do not have developed systems for seeking needed MRL for U.S. growers. Using a series of sample MRLs, a pilot program was developed to determine what is needed to obtain MRLs in the region.
Matt spoke to the pesticide leaders of Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines about the importance of creating such a system to ensure successful exports. With Southeast Asia a growing region for U.S. specialty crop exports, the need for MRLs in the region is expected to grow.