Assisting Specialty Crop Exports: Low Oxygen Storage and Packaging Systems for U.S. Tree Nuts with Phytosanitary Traceability
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Solicitation details, issuing organization, response deadlines, documents, and interested companies for this government contract opportunity.
AI Contract Overview
The Foreign Agricultural Service of the USDA is seeking a cooperative agreement under solicitation USDA-FAS-10621-0750-106-27-0001 to develop technically and economically viable technologies for low-oxygen storage and packaging of U.S. tree nuts. The project aims to replace expensive and bottleneck-prone fumigation or freezing processes with non-invasive, digital monitoring systems that maintain oxygen levels below 1% by volume. This initiative is critical for meeting the phytosanitary import requirements of countries such as India, Korea, and Japan, while ensuring product quality by suppressing lipid oxidation and eliminating chemical residuals. The total anticipated federal funding for a single award is 2,000,000 dollars over a performance period of up to five years. The scope of work includes creating digital oxygen mapping and seal integrity verification methods for various packaging formats, from bulk bins to retail bags, ensuring compliance with the European Union Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation for recyclability. Applicants must submit a project narrative limited to 10 pages, along with SF-424 and SF-424A forms, via the ezFedGrants portal by October 26, 2026. Awards will be determined through a trade-off process based on a scoring system totaling 80 points, prioritizing the project implementation plan, external industry collaboration, budget reasonableness, and document professionalism. Recipients will be required to establish a technical coordination group and adhere to strict reporting and conflict of interest disclosure guidelines.
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The occurrence of insects as well as pesticide residuals can be significant barriers for U.S. horticultural exports. Each importing country can have unique phytosanitary and maximum residue limit (MRL) requirements, which creates operational and logistical challenges. To maximize return to growers, U.S. shippers need tools that can universally address all such requirements while maintaining product quality. Currently, tree nuts and many other durable specialty crops require fumigations or freezing, which are both expensive and create bottlenecks in marketing.
More and more tree nut handlers are using a modified atmosphere (MA) or controlled atmosphere (CA) technology in which low-oxygen conditions (<1% by volume) are maintained during storage and/or in packaging. Low-oxygen conditions are known to control insect pests, leave no chemical residuals, and result in high quality products since the lipid oxidation that causes rancidity is markedly suppressed. While this approach is being used as a condition of sale, there is currently no efficient way for shippers to validate the low-oxygen conditions for customers, let alone importers with phytosanitary requirements for insect control. Technically and economically viable, verifiable, and preferably traceable technologies are critically needed before low-oxygen storage and packaging approaches can be used for export to most countries.
Currently, the existing low-oxygen technologies do not incorporate digital mapping or official record-keeping during the packing or storage process, so there is no non-invasive manner to verify the oxygen content over time within the gas-impermeable liners and/or confirm seal integrity. This limits the ability to verify that a low-oxygen environment has been maintained at a specific oxygen level over a certain period of time, which would be necessary to ensure the conditions were met to act as a phytosanitary treatment. Counties such as India, Korea, and Japan require phytosanitary treatments, such as fumigation, for post-harvest pest management before many types of U.S. tree nuts can be imported into the countries. Additionally, buyers in other markets also request pest management treatments as a condition of sale in commercial transactions.
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