 The Dominican Republic, sun, sea, sand in the heart of the Caribbean. Tourism is the country's main source of income, attracting over five million visitors a year to its resorts. But beyond the Palm Fringe beaches, agriculture has a vital role to play. It's the second most important industry and a major employer. The production of fruits and vegetables in the Dominican Republic is very important because it serves to feed our people, but it is also the strength of the exportation of the country. This all changed in March 2015, when the Mediterranean fruit fly, or med fly for short, was detected on the east coast. This was the first time this highly destructive fruit pest had reached the Caribbean. Female flies cause damage by laying their eggs in fruit and vegetables. Shortly after the first case was reported, the US, the main export market, reacted. Once we were notified of this detection, the immediate reaction is very typical, but we immediately banned all imports of any possible host fruits that are not treated specifically for fruit flies into the United States. It's speculated that the fly entered the country through infested fruit in tourist luggage. It's surprising how often it does happen. It's most likely the tourist from Europe or some other location where the med fly is established brought in infested fruit. The impact of the ban, which applied to 18 types of fruit and vegetables, was dramatic, causing a loss of US$40 million and putting 30,000 jobs at risk. Although the main agriculture area was never infested with the fly, the farmers here were badly affected. After assessing the extent of the infestation, the country started to control the pest with various suppression measures. But something extra was needed to eradicate the pest from the country, a nuclear technology known as SIT, the sterile insect technique. Within days of the country requesting that assistance, we were able to send experts to the country to assess firstly the situation and secondly work with the authorities of the country. With the support of the IAEA through its partnership with the FAO and together with the US Department of Agriculture, the Dominican Republic launched a med fly eradication program. With SIT, millions of flies are mass reared in special facilities. Male pupae are sterilized with radiation. In the Dominican Republic's SIT program, the sterile pupae came from the El Pino facility of the Mosque Med program in Guatemala. After being chilled, the sterile flies were distributed by plane over the infested areas. Here, they mated with the wild female flies, but this produced no offspring. Trapping and fruit sampling measures were used to assess the progress of the project. And in January 2017, the last wild med fly was detected, paving the way for the announcement in July 2017 that the mediterranean fruit fly had been eradicated from the country. The Dominican Republic has been an invaluable support, not only because it has represented the millionaire savings for the country, but also because exportations were opened again that had been prohibited. The Dominican Republic has a vast wealth of natural beauty and resources. Nevertheless, it's still a developing country. Plans to expand the fruit and vegetable export market are underway. Now equipped with the right skills for effective pest control and increased surveillance and quarantine measures, the country is well prepared should the med fly return and is looking towards a more fruitful economy.