SAG imposes 27.2-kilometer agricultural quarantine due to Mediterranean fruit fly

The Agricultural and Livestock Service (SAG) established a quarantined area with a radius of 27.2 kilometers around the point where a specimen of the Mediterranean fruit fly was detected in the urban area of Quilicura, in order to safeguard the access of Chilean fruit to the Chinese market. The measure was established in exempt resolution No. 1,803, issued on October 31, 2026, by the Metropolitan Regional Directorate of the service and published in the Official Gazette No. 44,596 on Wednesday, November 11, 2026, section I, pages 1 to 3 (CVE 2899516).

The resolution is based on Law No. 18,755, which sets the regulations for the Agricultural and Livestock Service, and on decree law No. 3,557 of 1980, on Agricultural Protection, which defines and penalizes phytosanitary infractions. The direct precedent is exempt resolution No. 3,513, dated December 7, 1995, from the National Directorate of the Agricultural and Livestock Service, which declared Chile a country free of Ceratitis capitata (Wied).

The discovery that triggered the alert

The document states that on October 28, 2026, the presence of an adult female of the pest was detected in the urban area of Quilicura. Based on that record, and exercising the powers granted by numeral 3 of exempt resolution No. 3,513, the service arranged the quarantine restrictions.

The Ministry of Agriculture details that the agency defines its usual regulated area as a circle of 7.2 kilometers from each detection point, a criterion accepted by most export markets. China, on the other hand, requires 27.2 kilometers, which is why the resolution sets specific restrictions for that destination, based on the work protocols signed with that country and subsequent official clarifications.

An eighty-vertex polygon over Santiago

The quarantined area is effective from October 31, 2026, and is delimited by a polygon of 80 vertices with UTM coordinates, datum WGS 84, zone 19. The layout completely incorporates the following communes:

• San Miguel, Macul, Maipú, Providencia, San Ramón, Ñuñoa, Cerrillos, and La Reina.
• El Bosque, Independencia, Lo Prado, Recoleta, Renca, Pudahuel, and Quinta Normal.
• La Granja, Vitacura, Quilicura, Santiago, Conchalí, La Cisterna, and Estación Central.
• Cerro Navia, Lo Espejo, San Joaquín, and Pedro Aguirre Cerda.
• Partially: Lampa, Calera de Tango, Colina, La Pintana, Puente Alto, Curacaví, Peñaflor, San Bernardo, Lo Barnechea, La Florida, Til Til, Padre Hurtado, Las Condes, and Peñalolén.

Obligations for orchards, packing plants, and transport

The resolution mandates phytosanitary measures of compulsory execution within the regulated area:

• The service may install mobile and temporary phytosanitary checkpoints, inside or outside the area.
• It may carry out inspections, verification of origin, and corroboration of phytosanitary conditions at fruit and vegetable collection centers, whose owners must facilitate the work of the inspectors.
• All host fruit orchards and fruit-growing establishments within the 27.2-kilometer radius must be registered in the Agricultural Registration System (SRA).
• Producers must report a production estimate by species, variety, and use at the Metropolitan SAG Office, Quarantine Unit at 120 Las Sophoras Street, Estación Central, starting October 31, 2026.
• Transports carrying host products produced and packed outside the area that transit through it must comply with safeguard conditions.
• Fruit produced within the area and destined for China may only be packed and handled within that zone, unless officially indicated by the destination country.
• All fruit produced outside the area that enters it is considered quarantined and must comply with the requirements of the Chinese market.
• Air shipments to China embarking through AMB Airport must arrive prepared from the origin complying with said requirements.

Validity, signature, and sanctions

The text orders the notification of the resolution in the Official Gazette and in the newspapers with the widest circulation in the Region, and warns that infractions will be sanctioned in accordance with decree law No. 3,557. The act bears the signature of Juan Miguel Valenzuela Espinoza, Regional Director of the Agricultural and Livestock Service of the Santiago Metropolitan Region, appointed to that position through exempt resolution RA No. 110664/1325/2026, dated April 14, 2026.

The decision is added to other actions of the service in the same period: on October 23, 2026, exempt resolutions No. 734 and No. 721 were published, declaring regulated areas in Copiapó and in the Bodega sector, in the Atacama Region. In parallel, on November 11, the Agricultural and Livestock Service of O’Higgins ended the intensive surveillance for an isolated specimen in Graneros, through exempt resolution No. 2,088 (CVE 2898381).

The scope of the measure is sensitive for metropolitan fruit growing: the delimited zone covers a large part of the urban and peri-central core of Santiago, where orchards, packing plants, and collection centers that supply both the domestic market and export shipments are concentrated. With the quarantine in effect, any producer included in the 27.2-kilometer radius must prove registration, traceability, and phytosanitary condition before shipping fruit to China, the main destination for Chilean off-season fruit.

Source: Official Gazette of the Republic of Chile, No. 44,596, Wednesday, November 11, 2026, section I, pages 1 to 3 (official reference: CVE 2899516).