Hot chile for CBP
US Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists assigned to the Columbus port of entry are busier than ever processing dozens of chile imports from Mexico on a daily basis. CBP’s operation “Hot Chile” is now underway to address the traffic. The workload is expected to peak shortly.
CBP agriculture specialists will deal with 90 and 100 shipments of chile a day during the busiest part of the import season. During the 2021 chile import season, just under 11,000 shipments of chile from Mexico were processed. That volume is expected to rise during the current 2022 import period.
The number of imports has increased substantially annually. In 2016 the total number of imports was just over 8,900. During the 2021 chile import season, agriculture specialists ordered 119 pest interceptions. (cj)