APHIS Opens 'State-of-the-Art' Plant Inspection Station in Atlanta
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced on the grand opening on Nov. 7 of an expanded plant inspection station in Atlanta. The “state-of-the-art hub” will allow APHIS to keep up with an ever increasing volume of fresh cut flowers and live plants imported into the U.S., said Osama El-Lissy, deputy administrator-APHIS Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ). “This expansion will expedite shipment processing by allowing for the simultaneous inspection of multiple shipments, making it just one example of USDA’s overall effort to facilitate and expand trade with our partners worldwide,” he said. The new facility will also include an operations control center to ensure the safety of entering agricultural products, water saving and energy conservation fixtures, and laboratories and inspection rooms that exceed current engineering and safety requirements, APHIS said.
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The Atlanta inspection system is one of 16 such facilities at major ports of entry across the U.S. Since the Atlanta facility opened in 2005, the port has become the second-busiest for imports of foreign-grown flowers, shrubs, and other plant material into the U.S., trailing only Miami. Since 2005, inbound plant cargo in Atlanta has increased from less than 4 million plants to over 200 million, APHIS said.