In Brazil, 99% of the apple growing areas are concentrated in the southern region, with an annual harvest of more than 1.2 million tons of fruits and a supply chain amounting to USD 1900 million. Despite the occurrence of several species of tephritid fruit flies in the region, the South American fruit fly, Anastrepha fraterculus (Wiedemann) (Tephritidae) represents 98.5% of the flies captured in commercial apple orchards. The gross value of yield losses and the cost of associated chemical control of this pest were estimated at close to USD 8 million per year. Moreover, the infestation rate by A. fraterculus has increased during the past four years, as the most commonly used insecticides have been banned. Brazilian researchers, along with state institutes and the Brazilian Association of Apple Producers (ABPM) have been promoting environment-friendly alternatives to insecticide application, such as sterile insects and parasitoids, to suppress the pest, and created the Moscasul Biological Control and Integrated Fruit Fly Management Center. After receiving the support of the Ministry of Agriculture at the end of 2014, almost USD 600 000 have been invested in constructing a rearing facility for A. fraterculus at the Agricultural Experiment Station of EMBRAPA (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation), Vacaria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The first containerized laboratory modules were installed in May 2016. During the pre-operational phase of the project, pilot trials were planned in apple orchards at Vacaria. As the Center for Nuclear Energy in Agriculture (CENA) has a 250 m² facility to produce fruit flies, including radiation sources, the sterile flies for the pilot trials will be initially provided by CENA. Both sterile flies and Diachasmimorpha longicaudata (Ashmead) parasitoids will be released in the surrounding non-commercial vegetation located within a 50-100 m buffer zone in the periphery of the target orchards, as these areas are the native breeding sites and repositories of the wild flies. Based on the wild population densities of the in the target orchards (114 ha) and the surrounding forested areas (111 ha), about 150 000 sterile flies per week will be required for the first pilot phase. After the fine-tuning of all rearing and sterilisation procedures in the beginning of 2017, CENA will ship more than 200 000 irradiated pupae weekly by air to Vacaria for 6 months, starting in September when the level of the wild fly population is lower. The results may influence the direction of future control tests and benefit the area-wide management of A. fraterculus involving hundreds of apple producers in the region and other temperate fruit growing farmers from southern Brazil.