Hawai’i-grown lemons and limes ready for export

Researchers from the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service are opening new markets for America’s fruit growers. Fruit flies are major economic and quarantine pests that impact fresh fruit production and impede international trade. Flies lay their eggs on fruits, making the infested fruit their host, resulting in millions of dollars in damage annually. For international trade, fruits must undergo quarantine treatment or other mitigation measures to control possible infestation by fruit flies and other high-risk pests. 

In Hawai’i, ‘Lisbon’ lemons and ‘Persian’ or ‘Tahiti’ limes, both commercially popular cultivars, are new crops recently planted on the rich-soil island of Maui. Currently, the fruit is being sold locally, but harvest volumes may eventually surpass local demand. Export from Hawai’i is an option to best utilize production of high quality lemons and limes. 

ARS researchers evaluated whether the Hawai’i-grown lemons and limes can serve as hosts for Mediterranean fruit flies, Oriental fruit flies, and melon flies. In the studies, host status testing was conducted using no-choice laboratory and field cage tests as well as field collection of fruits. Their research findings show promise in the safe overseas export of commercial quality and non-damaged Lisbon lemons and Persian limes. 

“We inspected the fruits and found that the non-damaged fruits are natural non-hosts of fruit flies and pose a low risk of moving fruit flies during overseas export,” said Peter Follett, a research entomologist at the Daniel K. Inouye U.S. Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center in Hilo, HI. 

Follett added that Hawaii may be able to develop an export protocol based on non-host status or a systems approach to reduce the pest risk to an acceptable level for trading partners. 

As beloved citrus fruits with several nutritional benefits, lemons and limes are in demand worldwide. These research findings should make it easier and more economically beneficial for growers to export these fruits to a multitude of markets.   

The studies were conducted in collaboration with the ARS Southeastern Fruit and Nut Research Laboratory in Byron, GA, and the ARS  San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center in Parlier, CA. 

The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in agricultural research results in $20 of economic impact.

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