PPQ officers work in some foreign 
countries inspecting agricultural 
commodities, like these mangos, before 
shipment to the United States. 
tion of plant germplasm for 
research uses at ARS or other 
official institutions. About 99 
percent of propagative plant 
germplasm imported into the 
United States for research 
purposes in small quantities by 
ARS and their cooperators is 
cleared at this station. Personnel 
at this center do five main kinds of 
work onsite: germplasm import 
clearance, export certification, 
postentry quarantine programs, 
seed examinations, and quaran- 
tine facilities security. 
PPQ officers also work in some 
foreign countries inspecting 
agricultural commodities before 
shipment to the United States to 
facilitate the products’ movement 
to markets. One of the most 
successful of these preclearance 
programs is in The Netherlands, 
where PPQ officers have been 
inspecting flower bulbs since 
1951. In Chile, PPQ has been 
inspecting all fruits and vegetables 
destined for U.S. consumers since 
1983. 
Facilitating Exports: 
Guarantees for Our Trading 
Partners and Services for 
U.S. Exporters 
To facilitate agricultural exports, 
PPQ provides assurance that U.S. 
plants and plant products meet the 
plant quarantine import require- 
ments of foreign countries. This 
assurance takes the form of a 
phytosanitary certificate, issued by 
PPQ or its State cooperators. 
PPQ assists American farmers and 
exporters by providing 
phytosanitary inspection and 
certification for plants and plant 
products being shipped to foreign 
countries. As a service, PPQ will 
provide phytosanitary certificates 
to exporters when required by a 
foreign country. These 
phytosanitary certificates verify 
that the products have been 
inspected and are pest and 
disease free. PPQ issues two 
kinds of phytosanitary certificates: 
those for domestic plants and 
plant products and those for 
