July 2011. A member from San Antonio de Padua de la Concordia (usually shortened to
Concordia), Entre Rios, Argentina, wants to grow organic fruits to export to Peru, but that country has a long list of quarantine pests, including several species of Rhagoletis. Does anyone have information about the fruiit fly, R. tomatis? What countries is it recorded from, what crops is it known to attack?

A member responded saying that R. tomatis is recorded only in Chile and Peru. According to the CABI Crop Pest Compendium, R. lycopersella is present in Peru, and R. blanchardi in Brazil.

The member from Argentina was asked:

What crop do you want to export to Peru?
Is Rhagoletis tomatis present in Argentina?
If you want to grow tomatoes and Rhagoletis tomatis is present then controlling it organically well enough for quarantine purposes will be very difficult indeed.

Perhaps the best way is to get the quarantine authorities to contact Peru quarantine authorities and discuss whether R. tomatis is really a quarantine pest for Peru. If R. tomatis is present in Peru then they can only claim it to be a quarantine pest if they have a national programe to limit its distribution to selected areas.