Adelaide Hills strawberry growers are calling for changes to national fruit fly protocols after a suburban outbreak ruined this year’s harvest.
In line with the protocols, a 15 kilometre radius “suspension zone” was enacted in January following the discovery of Queensland fruit fly maggots in homegrown peaches at Glynde, north-east of the Adelaide CBD.
Growers in the impacted area are not allowed sell their fruit within the zone, shutting them out of several major metropolitan produce markets and cutting off crucial revenue streams.
The impact of the restrictions, which have hit while berries are in season, has prompted calls for the nationally-agreed suspension zone to be reduced.
Farmers ‘completely shut out’ by restrictions
Brothers Sam and Dominic Virgara, who grow strawberries and raspberries on their property at Uraidla, usually sell their fruit at the Adelaide Showground Farmers’ Market.
But, given their property sits within the Glynde outbreak suspension zone, they have not been able to make their weekly trip.
“We just don’t have an avenue to sell our fruit anymore, we’ve [been] just completely shut out the market,” Sam said.
“We’d turn over about [$800,000] to $1 million a year. We’ll lose that, completely.”
Queensland fruit fly was detected in Adelaide’s north-east (file image). (Supplied : Chris O’Connor)
The brothers have progressively stopped watering their strawberry plants and expect the fruit will be dumped in the coming weeks.
They have also been forced to cut the jobs of 10 seasonal pickers.
Sam said they had been told by South Australia’s primary industries department, PIRSA, they could resume selling fruit at the market if they fumigated with methyl bromide.
As organic farmers, it was a step they were unwilling to take.
“That actually breaks trust with our customers who buy our fruit because we have no use of insecticides and things like that,” he said.
Growers in the suspension zone are allowed to sell their produce interstate — but, as a relatively small operation, the Virgara brothers do not have the necessary existing arrangements in place.
Livelihoods threatened by ‘red tape’
For Sam and Dominic Virgara, another harvest affected by fruit fly restrictions would be crushing.
“If there’s another (outbreak next summer), we’ll have to just completely shut our operations and go away,” Sam said.
South Australia is the only mainland state without an established fruit fly population, which has significant benefits for the state’s $1.3 billion horticultural industry.
But Grant Piggott, chief executive of Fruit Producers SA, said the Glynde outbreak highlighted the sacrifices made by farmers to maintain the status.
“It is a classic case of an incursion for biosecurity in that a small number of farmers tend to have a disproportionate hit on them compared to others,”
he said.
“It’s quite stark in this situation where you’ve got the fruit fly find on (one) side of the Mount Lofty Ranges and most of the fruit on the other side.”
But Grant Piggott, chief executive of Fruit Producers SA, said the Glynde outbreak highlighted the sacrifices made by farmers to maintain the status. (ABC News: Ashlin Blieschke)
While apples and pears are also grown inside the suspension zone, Mr Piggott said strawberry growers had been hardest hit.
“Apples and pears are able to be refrigerated for a time which allows them … to be sold in the normal way in Adelaide — whereas strawberries don’t have that ability, they don’t react well to cold storage,” he said.
Independent MLC Frank Pangallo, who has met with affected strawberry growers, said “heavy-handed government red tape” was threatening to destroy their livelihoods.
“I met with worried producers … who told me that severe restrictions on the movement of their fruit and time-consuming paperwork to certify each lot of fruit leaving their farms is strangling them,” he said.
He and Mr Piggott said halving the suspension zone to a 7.5km radius would protect the state from fruit fly while minimising the impact on individual farmers.
Restrictions following the Glynde outbreak, and a separate outbreak that was declared at Salisbury North around the same time, are due to lift in May.
PIRSA pushing for change
PIRSA said fruit movement restrictions were determined under the Australian National Fruit Fly Management Protocol.
“This is a nationally agreed set of rules that must be followed in the event of a fruit fly outbreak and are not determined by individual states,” the department said in a statement to the ABC.
“Agreed movement pathways” allow for commercial fruit movement in affected areas under certain conditions, which could include fumigation or refrigeration.
The department said any change to the national protocol needed to be reached in agreement with other jurisdictions.
“PIRSA has been advocating over a number of years with the Australian government and all other states and territories for changes to the existing protocols, particularly to reduce the size of the current 15km suspension zone for Queensland fruit fly, but so far without success,” the statement said.
“The department will continue to advocate for updated protocols.”
The federal agriculture department referred inquiries to PIRSA.
