Japan to Decide Fate of County Citrus Exports : Agriculture: Growers anxiously expect word within a month after officials inspect Medfly infestation.

Japan will decide within a month whether to ban Ventura County’s lucrative citrus crops because of the Medfly infestation, a high-ranking Japanese agricultural official said Saturday.

Growers are anxiously awaiting the decision, which could mean the loss of the county’s largest export market.

At a press conference Saturday in Los Angeles County, the official said the announcement will be based in part on a tour he and two other officials took last week to get a firsthand look at the infestation and efforts to eradicate it.

“Our main purpose in coming here was to investigate the situation, to survey the situation in Ventura County,” said Takeo Kocha, associate director of the Plant Protection Division of Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

“It is my feeling that Japan will, . . . based upon these survey results, be able to come to a determination on this issue,” he said.

Kocha said the small size of the infestation and the state’s response to it will be factors in the decision.

But ultimately, the decision will be driven by Japan’s determination to keep the Mediterranean fruit fly from being imported, Kocha said.

“Any decision will be weighted . . . by that final end--that the Medfly not enter Japan,” Kocha said, speaking through an interpreter at the press conference in Bell.

“The economic impact (on Ventura County) must be put aside,” Kocha said.

Ventura County’s agricultural officials have estimated the damage to farming and related industries could be hundreds of millions of dollars. Only crops grown outside the quarantine zone are at stake. Under regulations of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, products grown within the quarantine area may not be exported, even if treated with pesticide.

During their three-day visit to Ventura County last week, the delegation toured the 84-square-mile quarantine zone by air and met with agricultural officials and growers.

At packing and shipping houses, they inspected the system used to track each crate of fruit or vegetables shipped overseas.

And they witnessed on Wednesday the beginning of a six-month, aerial spraying campaign over Camarillo.

“The quick action is appreciated . . . by the Japanese government,” he said.

Kocha described the infestation as a “fairly restricted area,” unlike an infestation in the early 1980s that began in the San Jose area and eventually encompassed 1,300 square miles over eight Northern California counties. As a result, large areas were quarantined and crop prices plunged.

Officials with the Cooperative Medfly Project, a state and federal task force headquartered in Bell, said traps within the quarantine area continue to be checked daily, but the number of finds has tapered off dramatically since the first discoveries on Sept. 28.

“As it stands now, it looks like we’ve contained the infestation,” said John Stewart, assistant manager of the project.

If a ban is announced, most growers would not feel the economic effects until next year, Stewart said. The main crops still to be picked this year are avocados, which are mostly sold in domestic markets.

Although the specter of losing their biggest foreign market still looms, some growers tried to remain optimistic about Japan’s impending decision.

“I think this deliberation is a good sign,” said J. Link Leavens, who grows avocados and lemons in Moorpark. “The Japanese have never acted rashly.”

Robert Bean, who grows citrus near Moorpark, said he did not expect the Japanese to make a decision hastily.

“They tend to be super-cautious,” he said. “The last thing we want to do is upset them.”

But some took a more sober view.

Said Gene Mabry, a Moorpark lemon and avocado grower: “If they don’t accept our fruit, it’ll be a tragedy.”

Times correspondent Ira E. Stoll contributed to this report.