As the fallout from the tomato virus outbreak continues, how could it affect prices at the checkout?

Australia’s tomato supply chain is bracing for disruption and potential price hikes, while hundreds of jobs have already been lost, following the discovery of an exotic plant virus that has plunged three SA growers into lockdown.

Prior to the current outbreak in SA, the tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV) had not been detected in the country.

The outbreak has already led some states to impose bans on SA tomatoes — prompting predictions of price rises in those states — and fanned growers’ fears the restrictions could cause more harm than the virus itself.

What is the virus?

The virus was first detected in Australia in August and the Department of Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA) said it likely entered the country via infected seeds.

The disease causes yellowing and deformity on the leaves of the host plants, while the crop itself can form wrinkled spots and show uneven ripening.

Affected tomatoes are safe to eat but the virus is highly transmissible among tomatoes, capsicums and chillies, authorities say.

In tomatoes, the virus reduces the plant’s marketable yield by up to 75 per cent.

PIRSA’s director of plant and invasive species biosecurity, Nick Secomb, said it was a “very significant disease on production”.

“If we were to allow this disease to spread, not only will there be trade impacts but this disease is considered significant nationally for a reason,” he said.

The virus can spread through infected seeds, plants and cuttings, plant-to-plant contact and through touch transmission.

Where has the virus been detected?

ToBRFV has been found at three businesses — Perfection Fresh, Gawler River Tomato and SA Tomato — in the northern Adelaide Plains foodbowl region.

PIRSA has taken more than 2,500 plant samples from 18 businesses for testing and has said it was following up with four businesses about infected seeds.

Mr Secomb said so far the test results were “looking promising”, with most returning negative results for the virus, giving increased confidence the disease has been “contained” to the three properties.

“While we’re still taking samples and still following up tracing, it is not yet possible to say whether it can be eradicated,” he said.

The department also said some states may have received infected seeds and it has informed these jurisdictions.

What restrictions are in place?

Western Australia and Queensland have introduced bans on South Australian tomatoes and New South Wales is only doing business with properties cleared from the disease.

The SA government has placed three SA businesses into quarantine.

“The decision to quarantine those three facilities are all about seeking to contain the virus with the view to eradicate it,” Premier Peter Malinauskas said on Wednesday.

Primary Industries Minister Claire Scriven said the government’s focus was on “making sure we get the other states to open up to South Australian tomatoes as soon as possible”.

Will tomato prices be affected?

PIRSA said no shortages of tomatoes or price rises were expected at this stage.

Woolworths also said it did not expect “any immediate impact to our customers”.

SA Produce Market managing director, Penny Reidy, said prices would not be impacted “overnight”.

“Depending on whether the virus is contained … we could kind of ride through it — if the virus was to spread, and then supply shortens and then goes into other growers, then that would obviously put the prices up.”

Ms Reidy said impacts could be “double-edged”; consumers in states that have banned SA tomatoes could end up paying more, while shoppers in SA could end up paying less.

“If those borders are closed, it means that the supplies have to stay here in South Australia, so that could work two ways,” she said.

“If our South Australian growers need to keep our produce here in South Australia, then we’re going to have enough supply to keep us going. 

“It just means they can’t send it interstate and they will be the ones who see the higher prices.”

Adelaide’s Da’Salvatore Farms owner Tony Sacca, who is waiting on test results, is concerned sustained restrictions could cause flow-on effects at the checkout interstate.

“In South Australia they might be $2, $1 a kilo — interstate where they’ve locked the borders, they’re not going to have availability to tomatoes, or very limited supply, and they could be up to $50-$60 a kilo,” he said.

AusVeg SA CEO, Jordan Brooke-Barnett, said South Australia produces about a third of the nation’s tomatoes and the restrictions by other states would “potentially kill our trade”.

“I’m very firmly of the view that in a lot of these cases, the market restrictions are worse than the disease itself,” he said.

“As a worst case we still have access to New South Wales and Victoria for the majority of our production and that means we haven’t hit critical levels for our billion-dollars’ worth of products that we have in the [Adelaide] Plains.”

Will there be compensation for affected businesses and workers?

Perfection Fresh, one of the three businesses placed into quarantine, announced yesterday that it would cut a “significant” number of jobs due to the impact of the virus.

“With no timeline for when the lockdown might be lifted, we have no choice but to stand down workers, some of whom have been with us for many years,” its executive, Michael Simonetta, said.

PIRSA’s Nick Secomb said compensation for impacted growers could be considered in the future.

“There’s a national deed which describes how we respond as a nation to exotic diseases like this, and within that deed there are requirements and potential to manage compensation,” he said.

“So that’s where the conversation is heading around how we handle the cost share of a disease like this.”

AusVeg SA’s Jordan Brooke-Barnett said the industry is hoping to discuss resuming the supply of tomatoes with Western Australia and Queensland.

“If those businesses are going to take the sacrifice for the rest of the industry, then we need the other states, the Commonwealth, and other parties to come to the table [on] how do we address those losses and look after those growers who made the sacrifice on behalf of the broader industry,” he said.

What about government support?

The United Workers Union’s Tim Nelthorpe said there were three different “cohorts” of stood-down workers — permanent staff, labour hire workers and participants in the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme — and that each could be impacted in different ways.

He said permanent workers would be “fighting very hard to ensure they’re not made redundant”, and said there was a need for stronger support than what was currently on offer.

“They’re broadly migrants and refugees from the northern suburbs of Adelaide – people from the Hazara community, the Cambodian community, the Nepalese community, the various African diasporas,” he said.

“We’d hoped there’d be more support on the table for the workers than what we’ve heard from the Premier thus far. 

“I think referring people to Centrelink is not enough — we need a package from a combination of the state and federal governments to support these workers.”

Mr Malinauskas said the government was “rapidly seeking to engage with the Commonwealth to look at a range of different options” — but that any such support would not be available to workers attending an assistance hub in Adelaide’s north that opened this morning.

Opposition leader Vincent Tarzia has called for an independent review of the government’s response to the virus outbreak.

“We’re calling for the government to come up with some form of compensation for producers, but also the workers as well,” he said.

The federal government said it was working to ensure the “financial wellbeing” of the impacted workers, but acknowledged that “individual circumstances can impact on eligibility”.

It said Services Australia financial information officers could provide “comprehensive information” on superannuation, as well as termination and Centrelink payments.

Mr Malinauskas said the state government had already taken several steps, in addition to setting up the support hub, to help impacted staff stay in work.

“We have a range of services, in a range of different languages, to indicate where people can get other types of support including financial assistance,” he said.

“We’re seeking to get the details of people so we can redeploy them to other parts of the industry that are currently looking for workers as well.”