Boosting plant health and protecting plants from pests - the 2018 IPPC Regional Workshop for Latin America

31 August 2018, Natal, Brazil - With the ever-increasing volume of international trade, countries need to prevent plant pests from entering and establishing themselves locally, while still facilitating the international safe trade of plants and products. To address this challenge, 32 international experts from 18 Latin American countries attended the IPPC regional workshop in Natal, Brazil from the 28th to the 31st of August 2018. The workshop focused on ways to better protect plants from pests by harmonizing international phytosanitary standards and strengthening regional capacity.

In order to preserve food security, biodiversity and facilitate safe trade, cooperation among nations to protect plant resources against the introduction and spread of pests globally is crucial, remarked Ms Adriana Moreira from the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) Secretariat at FAO.

The Regional Workshop in Latin America was jointly organized by the IPPC Secretariat, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and three Regional Plant Protection Organizations (RPPOs) in the region: the Comunidad Andina (CAN), the Comite Regional de Sanidad Vegetal del Cono Sur (COSAVE) and the Organismo Internacional Regional de Sanidad Agropecuaria (OIRSA), as well as the Brazil s National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO) Departamento de Sanidade Vegetal (DSV)/MAPA.

Besides discussions on the six draft ISPMs under country consultation, participants also discussed regional hot topics such as:

• Concerns about preventing the spread of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense, tropical race 4 (Foc TR4) which has already caused over 75 million dollars of losses worldwide and destroyed seven million Cavendish banana plants.
• The new High throughput sequencing technologies (HTS or NGS) being used for research by the International Potato Center, and the perspectives of use of these technologies in the regulatory context by the IPPC.
• Pest and plant disease surveillance systems - including a case study from Colombia.
• Successes and challenges in the fruit production and export chain - including a Brazilian case study.
• ePhyto and electronic certification systems to facilitate trade.

For more information about the workshop please see the:

• Workshop report for the 2018 IPPC Regional Workshop for Latin America will soon be available at: https://www.ippc.int/en/core-activities/capacity-development/regional-ippc-workshops/
• Regional Workshop Presentations

Opening ceremony with RPPOs, IPPC and IICA representatives, and with the Director of Brazil s National Plant Protection Organization and the Superintendent of the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture in Rio Grande do Norte state, who welcomed the participants.