Goomba38 > wrote:

> I dunno... I'm just trying to make heads or tails out of the ban. Do they fear
> these peppercorns being sprinkled among citrus fields or something?

You never know what could become of the peppercorns once they get into
the country. They are infected with a bacterium highly contagious to
citrus plants that is apparently destroyed by roasting peppercorns, but
not by just drying them. It is enought to infect just one local citrus
tree and the contagious lesions can then be spread far and wide by wind
and rain. See, for example,
<http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppq/ep/citruscanker/>.

Victor