FURTHER CONTROLS ON THE PREVENTION OF THE IMPORTATION OF DISEASES OF OLIVE TREES

The Department of Agriculture has during the past few months embarked on a scheme whereby the Department's nursery is grafting and growing olive trees that are certified as being virus and disease free. This is resulting in a large number of such ‘healthy' trees joining the local tree population.

In order to complement the benefits of such a scheme, the Department is also now introducing new controls and measures on the importation of olive trees. These consist in a three stage plan intended to ensure that by January 2002, only healthy and certified trees are allowed to be added to local populations.

The measures are as follows –

i) All imported olive tree seedlings are to emanate from a recognised certification scheme with immediate effect.

ii) Grown trees up to the age of five years, will from the 1^st of June 2001, be required to either be originating from such a certification scheme, or otherwise present a Phytosanitary certificate having the additional declaration from a recognised authority that the plants have been tested and are free of the diseases as per attached list, on Appendix A.

iii) Trees over the age of five years will have to satisfy the same conditions as at ii), however the effective date for such importation will be as from the 1st January 2002.

APPENDIX ‘A'

List of conditions that imported olive trees must be certified as being free of.

The rootstock and scion must be free from the following organisms:

Viruses:

Arabic Mosaic (ArMV)

Strawberry latent ringspot nepovirus (SLRSV)

Olive latent ringspot nepovirus (OLRSV)

Cucumber Mosaic virus (CMV)

Cherry leaf roll nepovirus (CLRV)

Olive latent 1 sobemovirus (OLV-1)

Olive latent 2 ourmiavirus (OLV-2)

Fungi

Verticillium dhaliae

Bacteria

Pseudomonas savastanoi