The Argentine ambassador to the United States, Martin Lousteau, said the lifting of the suspension of the trade of Argentine lemons to the US market was imminent because Argentina had passed all the tests required to authorize the re-entry of this product to US territory.
"We will have an announcement in a relatively short period," said Lousteau in an interview published on Friday by El Cronista. He also stressed that "Argentina surpassed the analysis of equivalence. Now, we are waiting for the Department of Agriculture to publish the regulations."
On June 15, 2000 the country was authorized to export fresh lemons to the US; however, some producers form the state of California filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for having authorized this. A judge of the Eastern District of California agreed with the producers and suspended the trade of lemons in August 2001, 13 months after the permit had been granted.
Argentina is the largest producer of lemon in the world and the province of Tucuman leads production: 55% of its exports are lemons with revenues of $600 million dollars per year.
