Russia’s Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance for Moscow, Moscow and Tula region reported on 7 June that during the inspection of tomato batch from Turkmenistan South-American tomato moth was identified. 18,5 tons of infected produce will be destroyed pursuant to Russia’s biological pest control law.
The insect was detected at the biological pest control checkpoint of ООО “Multimodular Transport Systems”.
Let us recall that on 15 March the microbiological laboratory was set up in Turkmenistan to carry out the analysis of food products to ensure its safety and issue certificates complying with international standards.
On 20 March Russia’s Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance reported that Turkmen tomatoes, exported to Orenburg region of Russia, were infected with pests.
On 20 April pro-governmental media outlets reported that on a monthly basis about 200 tons of tomatoes are exported to the countries neighbouring Turkmenistan under the brand Mahmalagroprodukt.
From Wikipedia.
Tuta absoluta is a species of moth in family Gelechiidae known by the common names tomato leafminer, tomato pinworm and South American tomato moth.Tomato is the main host plant, but T.
absoluta also attacks other crop plants of the nightshade family.Worms affect leaves or unripened tomatoes.Up to 15 generations can occur in a single year.In Europe the moth was identified in 2006, in 2010 in Russia and in 2014-2016 it was reported in many countries of Africa and India.