APHIS' Plant Protection and Quarantine Releases 2022 Annual Report

PPQ Releases its 2022 Annual Report [] [Test] [Screen shot of the Plant Protection and Quarantine program's fiscal year 2022 annual report.]( Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) Releases [2022 Annual Report]( Last year, U.S. agriculture posted its best export year ever with a record-breaking $196.4 billion in sales of farm and food products. The year before, America’s farm output contributed more than $164.7 billion to our gross domestic product and supported 2.6 million direct on-farm jobs. Protecting this value—along with America’s forests, other ecosystems, and community landscapes—is the charge of the Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) program, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). PPQ safeguards U.S. agriculture and natural resources against the entry, establishment, and spread of economically and environmentally significant pests, and we facilitate the safe trade of agricultural products. We are proud to release PPQ’s fiscal year (FY) [2022 Annual Report]( to share our successes in this noble mission. We organize the report along our three lines of defenses against invasive pests and diseases: abroad, at the border, and across the nation. We call this system of interlocking protections the Safeguarding Continuum. Abroad, we fight against invasive pests and diseases before they have a chance to come here. In FY 2022, PPQ inspected and cleared 2.82 billion pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables from 19 countries before they shipped. We certified or recertified 282 treatment facilities worldwide to minimize the risk of plant pests entering the United States. We inspected and certified plant and plant product shipments; conducted technical negotiations to open, maintain, and expand export markets; and facilitated the release of held shipments—an added value of approximately $417.5 million. We also positioned more than 50 U.S. experts on international and regional focus groups to advance key standard-setting and global initiatives on seeds, climate change, electronic phytosanitary certificates, fruit flies, forestry, and other important topics. At the border, the continuum runs through U.S. ports of entry, our last chance to keep pests and diseases out of our country. Last year, PPQ issued more than 37,000 import permits and regulatory guidance letters for plants and plant products and cleared 26,176 shipments containing over 2.2 billion plant units at our plant inspection stations. We identified 109,000 pests found during U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspections of cargo, mail, and express carrier shipments and took quick action to prevent those of concern from entering our country. In addition, we continued to implement risk-based sampling at U.S. ports of entry to focus inspections on higher risk shipments, reducing inspection times on the southern border by 77 percent. Across the country, the continuum spans the entire Nation to detect pest incursions early and respond rapidly. In 2022, PPQ removed nearly 25,000 acres from Karnal bunt-regulated areas in Arizona, protecting valuable wheat export markets and bringing the country closer to disease-free status. We conducted 326 plant pest surveys with cooperators in 50 States and 4 Territories and coordinated the response to about 50 species that were new or re-introduced into the United States. We reared and released nearly 516,000 stingless wasps to State and Tribal cooperators for release at 176 sites across 125 counties in 28 States to combat the emerald ash borer. You can learn more about the many ways PPQ safeguarded plant health in FY 2022 by reading our [annual report](. The report includes our “by the numbers” infographic with key plant protection statistics, a safeguarding continuum infographic that explains our three lines of defenses against invasive pests and diseases, and program reports organized by each line of defense. In addition, our [Plant Protection Today]( monthly newsletter continually highlights our employees in action. We are grateful to PPQ’s talented employees who display their deep commitment to our mission every day. We are also thankful for our partners, without whom none of this would be possible. Looking to the future, we are eager to challenge ourselves again to find even more ways to help U.S. agriculture thrive—across the country and around the world. 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](