Potatoes
The Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is taking the actions set forth below to strengthen import safeguards against potato wart, a soil-borne disease that affects cultivated potato and two wild potato species. To give U.S. facilities and Canadian exporters time to comply, the new requirements will not take effect until Oct. 5.
- updating an import federal order to require any U.S. facility receiving and processing, packaging, or repackaging bulk shipments of potatoes from Prince Edward Island, Canada, to operate under a facility-specific compliance agreement
- prohibiting the use of cull potatoes and potato waste as animal feed and requiring disposal of waste at an approved site
- improving labeling requirements to enable full traceability back to both the production site and the packing shed of origin, including for repackaged potatoes not shipped in bulk
- clarifying how to apply the U.S. No. 1 grade standard to the imported potatoes
- strengthening certification requirements for PEI potatoes prior to export
- prohibiting the use of PEI potatoes imported for consumption as seed potatoes
Honey
The USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service has issued a final rule that will increase the assessment rate under the Honey Packers and Importers Research, Promotion, Consumer Education, and Industry Information Order. This rate will increase from 1.5 cents/lb. to 1.75 cent/lb, as of Sept. 1, 2026, and to 2.0 cents/lb. as of Jan. 1, 2027. Importers and first handlers that import and/or handle more than 250,000 pounds of honey and honey products per calendar year will be subject to these assessments.
Pork from Taiwan
Effective Aug. 19 APHIS has lifted restrictions on the importation of porcine (pork, swine, or pig) commodities from Taiwan that had been imposed in October 2025 due to detection of African swine fever on a pig farm in Taiwan.
However, APHIS still does not consider Taiwan to be free from foot-and-mouth disease, classical swine fever, or swine vesicular disease, and related import restrictions on porcine commodities originating from or transiting Taiwan remain in place.
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