Dec 17, 2021
As of today, December 17, the regulatory quarantine for LBAM has been lifted and the CDFA has initiated the repeal process of removing the California State Interior Quarantine for LBAM. The link to regulatory statement from the CDFA can be found here.
In short, this means that APHIS is reclassifying LBAM as a non-quarantine pest, removing all areas under quarantine, and removing movement restrictions on LBAM host material within the USA.
Discussions on lifting the quarantine are still ongoing with Canada and Mexico, so fruit will still need to be LBAM free when shipping there and a compliance agreement will still be needed to ship to Canada.
I sincerely hope that this capitulation on the part of the regulatory agencies responsible for this costly error results in some real soul searching so they can do better the next time around.