In mid-April, inspectors from the Southern Interregional Directorate of Rosselkhoznadzor (Russia’s agricultural watchdog) inspected three shipments of potatoes with a total volume of 192.5 tons at the Novorossiysk sea checkpoint in the Kuban region. The cargo, which had arrived from Egypt, underwent phytosanitary control. During the inspection, officials discovered live specimens of the potato tuber moth (Phthorimaea operculella Zell.), a dangerous pest included in Russia’s Unified List of Quarantine Objects. The presence of the pest was confirmed by an expert conclusion from the Novorossiysk branch of the FGBI “VNIIKR” (All-Russian Center for Plant Quarantine). To prevent the pest from entering and spreading across the country, the entire contaminated vegetable shipment was disinfected.
The potato tuber moth is an extremely dangerous pest capable of destroying up to 80% of the harvest of nightshade crops, including potatoes, tomatoes, and eggplants. A particular danger lies in its year-round life cycle: the caterpillars destroy the foliage, then move on to the tubers and continue to reproduce in storage facilities, rendering the product completely unfit for consumption.
