All US fruit detained upon arrival in China for seven days
Effective immediately, China's Customs has been instructed to detain and inspect all US fruit shipments for seven days upon arrival into China for pesticide residue testing. A shipment of Washington apples in ShenZheng port was rejected on Saturday and sent back to the US. Previously only 30% of American shipment where tested at random, now this number has been increased to 100%. Other countries of which currently all 100% of shipments are inspected are Peru and Australia, due to past quarantine issues.
According to Chinese importers, China Customs has strengthened the visual inspection of all US fruit to find traces of for example bugs or rot. If traces are found, the shipments will be hold for lab tests. In case these tests are proven positive, the shipment will be returned to the US or destroyed. Lab tests may take between 2 days up to 2 weeks. Fruit to be inspected will not be put into a cooler, and remain outside in container