‘Devastated’: Tens of millions of dollars in losses smash Australian tomato farmers

Hundreds of jobs and tens of millions of dollars are at stake as a virus never before seen in Australia has infected tomato crops in South Australia.

It is also possible that supermarket prices for the fruit will rise as an industry leader with a large market share, Perfection Fresh, is heavily impacted.

The company’s tomatoes have been missing from supermarket shelves nationwide for weeks because of the discovery of brown rugose virus, which will end up costing the business “tens of millions of dollars”.

“I’m devastated,” company CEO Michael Simonetta told 7.30.

“My heart breaks for the people.

“We’ve already let go of about 250 but there’s unfortunately more to come as we rip out more plants.”

It is the first time the tomato brown rugose virus has been confirmed in Australia.

While it poses no threat to human health, South Australia’s primary industries department (PIRSA) wants to eradicate it because it potentially reduces the yield of a plant by 75 per cent.

“Tomato prices will increase … we’re 30 per cent of the Australian market,” Mr Simonetta said.

“It will put more pressure on the cost-of-living crisis, and there’s no reason for it because these tomatoes are perfectly safe, perfectly edible.”

Mr Simonetta is speaking publicly for the first time about the quarantine restrictions placed on his business, which he said are an “overreach”.

Forty-seven samples have come back positive to the virus but Mr Simonetta said thousands more “healthy” tomatoes and tomato plants had to be thrown out because his 43-hectare South Australian operation had been shut down indefinitely by PIRSA.

“All that great fruit being tipped into the back of those big dumpster bins, that’s perfectly edible, great quality, it’s just devastating,” he said.

‘Very transmissible’

The tomato brown rugose virus was first detected in the Middle East in 2014 and has since been reported in Europe, China, Mexico and the USA. It also affects capsicums and chillies.

Mr Simonetta believed growers should be left to manage the virus.

“Nobody I speak to, whether it be in North America or Europe, has told me that their yield is reduced by 75 per cent,” Mr Simonetta said.

“We support biosecurity measures but this virus is not — in our opinion and those more expert than I around the world — is not able to be eradicated. The UK claimed to have eradicated it twice. What does that mean?”

South Australia’s Primary Industries Minister Clare Scriven said one other grower and a nursery in the state have had plants test positive and eradication was crucial to protect the broader industry.

“We’ve not had it in Australia before, anywhere in Australia, so this is the first outbreak, and so it’s in the interests of all growers across the country that if it can be eradicated, that it is,” Ms Scriven told 7.30.

“I know there’s a small number of growers who say we should just let it rip and go straight to management, but while we’ve still got the evidence showing it’s only three businesses currently infected, then it’s really important that we do everything we can for eradication.”

Tasmania and New South Wales have put restrictions on the importation of tomatoes from the three affected properties. Queensland and Western Australia have banned all tomatoes from South Australia.

“It’s considered a very transmissible disease. So it can be through soil, it can be windborne, it can be through machinery,” Ms Scriven said.

“That’s why it’s so important to be able to minimise, to contain the virus, as far as possible. That’s what we’ve done with the properties that are affected directly.”

Virus in imported seeds

The virus has been traced back to seeds imported in May this year that were sold to growers. The federal Agriculture Department said the seeds came with certifications that they had tested negative overseas for the virus.

Last financial year, the federal agriculture department tested about 40 per cent of imported tomato seed lines.

Customs broker Colin Brame says it would take significant resources to do more testing, and biosecurity was already short-staffed.

“Volume alone creates risk. If you’ve got 1,000 tonnes of seed coming in, you can manage it. If you’ve got 10,000 tonnes of seed coming in, it’s a very different kettle of fish,” Mr Brame said.

“To check more shipments at the border would take an awful lot of extra resources, a lot of manpower, a lot of increased skill sets.”

In a statement, a spokesman for the federal Agriculture Department said it was confident vacancies due to natural attrition and promotion would be filled this financial year.

Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said her government had increased funding to biosecurity and had moved to full cost recovery from importers to “provide long-term certainty”.

‘Caught with their pants down’

Not far from Perfection Fresh is Harry Kapiris’s tomato farm, which has also had plants test positive to the virus. He’s had to let 30 staff go and is about $1 million out of pocket so far.

“It’s not a good feeling to destroy perfectly good-looking crops. It’s heart-wrenching,” he said.

“We had a couple of positive results in two [glasshouses] out of probably about 20 or 25 [glasshouses].

“We made the decision as a family to scrap the season thus far and try and start again.”

But starting again isn’t that simple, as states and the Commonwealth have yet to agree on a formal process so growers can prove their property is free of the virus.

That frustrates Mr Kapiris.

“They should be aware of it and they should have a plan in place if this virus comes in,” he told 7.30.

“But everyone got caught with their pants down, for want of a better adage, just walking around and saying, ‘Well, where’d it come from? What’s happening?’ And really not knowing what to do.”

Ms Scriven said she understood the economic urgency of the situation for growers, but it could be weeks before the so-called clean-up protocol was finalised.

“It’s a complex process unfortunately. It’d be great if it was simple,” she said.

“This needs to be a protocol that all of our interstate counterparts and indeed overseas trading partners are confident with. So because of that level of confidence that needs to exist, that’s why it’s taking some time.”

Ms Scriven has also defended delays in testing samples from other tomato farms, because the only two accredited laboratories for the virus are interstate. 

There are 180 results still pending, with a further 234 “inconclusive” samples to be retested.

“This particular disease wasn’t on that highest priority list because it wasn’t necessarily the highest expected in terms of coming into the country,” she said.

“There are many hundreds, if not thousands of diseases and pests. [South Australia] can’t be ready and accredited for every single one of those. That’s simply not achievable.”

‘Entitled to compensation’

For Mr Simonetta, time is money and he’s frustrated to have no idea when he can begin selling tomatoes again.

“We’ve got 7 hectares of plants that are in propagation right now, that we’re hoping to be able to plant later this month to try and start to get back in business, and that will be fruit that’s harvested in mid-January,” he said.

“We’re burning money if we plant because we’ve got no assurance. We don’t know.

“Why nurture these crops when you don’t know whether you’re going to be able to sell them?”

The company hasn’t ruled out legal action to recoup losses.

“I think the industry, not just us, but the industry here in South Australia is absolutely entitled to compensation,” he said.

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