APHIS' Plant Protection and Quarantine Releases 2023 Annual Report

PPQ Releases its 2023 Annual Report [] [Test] [Screen shot of the PPQ 2023 Annual Report.]( Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) Releases [2023 Annual Report]( The value of America’s farms and forests is truly staggering. U.S. crop and livestock production was worth $543 billion in 2022. About 20 percent of U.S. farm products by value are exported each year, and U.S. agricultural exports were worth $178.7 billion in 2023. Our forest products industry employs about 950,000 people with a payroll of about $50 billion annually, and is among the top 10 manufacturing sector employers in 45 States, according to the American Forest and Paper Association. That is a lot of value—tied to countless livelihoods—to protect from the threat of invasive pests and diseases. And that’s the mission of USDA’s Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) program, as well as facilitating safe trade. In fiscal year (FY) 2023, we continued to effectively safeguard these resources. We inspected and cleared 3.21 billion pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables from 20 countries before they were shipped to the United States to keep damaging pests out of our country. We cleared 27,235 shipments containing over 1.87 billion plant units and more than 739 tons of seeds arriving at our plant inspection stations, intercepting 2,176 quarantine pests. We issued nearly 29,000 permits and regulatory guidance letters for the safe import of plants and plant products and responded to over 33,280 inquiries about imports and plant health permits. We also conducted 222 plant pest surveys with cooperators in 50 States and 4 Territories and coordinated the response to approximately 45 pests detected in 2023 and prior years. The strongest theme by far in FY 2023 was partnerships. We collaborated with our critical State partners—through the National Plant Board (NPB) and National Association of State Departments of Agriculture—to develop the [Spotted Lanternfly (SLF) Five-Year Strategy]( for fiscal years 2024 – 2028. The strategy outlines a unified approach to reducing the spotted lanternfly’s spread and impacts through the effective use of available State and Federal resources. In addition, PPQ and the NPB produced the [Fruit Fly Exclusion and Detection Program Fiscal Years 2024-2028 Strategy](, a unified roadmap for PPQ and our partners to protect American agriculture from the threat of invasive fruit flies and measure our progress along the way. On the safe trade side of our mission, we conducted technical negotiations to open, maintain, and expand export markets, and we facilitated the release of held shipments—an added value of approximately $459.3 million. Bangladesh’s government has removed a significant trade barrier for U.S. cotton exports by no longer requiring upon-arrival methyl bromide fumigation of U.S. baled cotton. This important U.S. export market was valued at more than $475 million in 2022 and has the potential to increase with this removal of the fumigation trade barrier. Additionally, we positioned more than 50 U.S. experts on international and regional expert and focus groups. They advanced key standard-setting and global initiatives on seeds, climate change, fast and fraud-resistant electronic phytosanitary certificates, fruit flies, forestry, and other important topics. This is just a glimpse of the tremendous work PPQ has done throughout the year. We are truly grateful to our talented employees and their deep commitment to our mission. We are also thankful for our partners, without whom none of this would be possible. We invite you to learn more about our crucial work in FY 2023 by reading our annual report on our [website]( under “Accomplishments” and our articles in our Plant Protection Today [newsletter](. We cannot wait to see what PPQ delivers by the end of FY 2024! Sincerely, Dr. Mark L Davidson Deputy Administrator Plant Protection and Quarantine Samantha J. Simon Associate Deputy Administrator Plant Protection and Quarantine --------------------------------------------------------------- [Bookmark and Share]( Questions about APHIS programs and services? [Contact Us]( STAY CONNECTED: [USDA blog]( [APHIS Facebook]( [APHIS Twitter]( [APHIS YouTube]( [Sign up for email updates]( [APHIS Flickr]( SUBSCRIBER SERVICES: [Manage Preferences]( | [Unsubscribe]( | [Help]( --------------------------------------------------------------- This email was sent to {EMAIL} using GovDelivery Communications Cloud on behalf of: USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service · 4700 River Rd · Riverdale, MD 20737 [GovDelivery logo](