OREANDA-NEWS. November 20, 2013. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) celebrated the opening of a new inspection plant .

The 16,000-square-foot plant is triple the size of the previous facility and is expected to increase the volume of cargo Atlanta receives and processes. Atlanta’s Plant Inspection Station is one of sixteen in the United States and has grown to second in volume, with over 200 million plants imported a year.

“Hartsfield-Jackson is already the world’s busiest passenger airport,” said Hartsfield-Jackson general manager Louis Miller. “Today’s opening and our strong partnership with USDA puts us in a position to continue to grow our cargo operations at the airport.”

“This expansion allows us to conduct inspections on the growing number of imported plants without comprising the safeguarding measures we have in place for protecting American agriculture,” said USDA APHIS’ State Plant Health Director for Georgia, William Kauffman. “The facility’s smooth construction process is just one example of the strong partnership between USDA and Atlanta Department of Aviation.”

Hartsfield-Jackson and Miami International Airport are the only two USDA-approved sites to apply cold treatment in the Southeast. Sites that are certified to apply cold treatment are able to receive a wider variety of perishable goods—including already grown plants—due to the engineering available at the facilities.

The new plant at Hartsfield-Jackson includes a docking system and direct access to the tarmac that will expedite cargo inspections. Additionally, the facility is equipped with two areas—one for import and the other for export—which provides USDA with the capability to certify export commodities and conduct inspections simultaneously.

The facility is LEED-silver certified and boasts state-of-the art technology including a molecular diagnostics laboratory and video capability to conference in remote specialists for pest identification.