Agricultural commodity importers will soon have a more convenient way of searching up the import requirements for vegetables, seeds, cut flowers, greenery, and more.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has developed a new database called Agricultural Commodity Import Requirements (ACIR).
ACIR is an online database with a search interface for finding and displaying import requirements for agricultural commodities.
ACIR will be replacing the Fruit and Vegetable Import Requirements (FAVIR) database. In addition to housing all the information from FAVIR, the ACIR database will contain all information found in three import manuals:
- Cut Flowers and Greenery Manual
- Seeds Not for Planting Manual
- Miscellaneous Processed Products Manual
The ACIR landing page will go live as of Sept. 30, 2022, at which time the FAVIR web page will redirect to the ACIR webpage, and FAVIR will no longer be available on the APHIS website. On Oct. 3, the three manuals will be removed from the public-facing USDA website and will only be available to U.S. Customs Border Patrol and APHIS staff internally for a transition period until the end of 2023.
ACIR is designed to provide a single source to search for and retrieve entry requirements for imported commodities without the need to access multiple manuals. ACIR’s information includes:
- Treatment schedules
- Inspection procedures
- Admissibility information
- Permit eligibility
- Self-service responses to entry requirement questions
Additionally, APHIS’s eFile system for permit, license, and registration applications will use the ACIR import requirements data when processing plant and plant product permit applications.
Training materials and video tutorials for importers, brokers, and members of the public to learn how to navigate ACIR’s interface are available on the ACIR Training page.
If you have feedback or questions, you can visit the ACIR feedback page or send an email to [email protected].
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