With the demise of the sugarcane industry in Hawaii in recent years, vast acreages have
become available for diversified agriculture. A tropical exotic fruit industry is rapidly expanding
to help fill the void and is expected to be an important part of Hawaii’s crop diversification.
An important step in this expansion is the development of quarantine treatments
to permit exports. Currently, irradiation is an accepted quarantine treatment for export of
papaya, carambola, lychee, rambutan, longan, atemoya, sapodilla, and abiu from Hawaii to
the U. S. mainland. Irradiation quarantine treatments up to this time have been developed
exclusively for fruit flies. In addition to fruit flies, many other insect and mite pests are
classified as regulatory pests and their appearance has equal status with fruit flies in interrupting
export shipments.