Growers in the Carnarvon region of Western Australia are supportive of the Federal Government’s plan to reduce the presence of Mediterranean fruitfly, or Medfly. The Government released a national plan to rid Australia of the pest, which is cited as a major reason for not allowing Australian produce into lucrative Asian markets. “"You can have a free trade agreement, but unless you're allowed to export the fruit, it really stops there," Federal Minister for Agriculture Barnaby Joyce told the ABC. There is also a biosecurity officer position to implement the program, and the hope is to coordinate a massive national effort to eradicate fruitfly together with the National Fruit Fly Strategy Advisor Committee.
“For products like mangoes, capsicum etc if we ever want to export out of here we have to become fruitfly free,” says Carnarvon grower Tom Day. “It’s important that we do that. Biosecurity hasn’t been all that brilliant over the years.”
The effort will have to come from the growers, however, Mr Day cautions. “There will be the government coming to the party but it’s up to the growers.” Mr Day believes that eradicating fruitfly and preparing growing areas to introduce sterile flies, as according to the national management plan, could take between one and two years. “There’s a lot of educating to do. People roll on to the next crop and leave crop on the ground and it just rots. A lot of people have mango trees and don’t pick them, they leave them on the ground,” he says. “If we want to get fruitfly free we need to bait and do biosecurity on properties so we get to a point we can say it’s safe to release sterile flies.”
Cost will be another factor, but ultimately any expense will be well worth it when growers are open to export to wealthy neighbouring countries in Asia, according to Mr Day. “It will cost, there will be a compulsory levy to growers, I’m not sure how much that will be at the moment.” The community is also used to a levy from paying council rates. “We’ve had a levy collected by council over the years. Rates have been contributing a small amount as well, we’ve been paying up to $600 per year, there are 172 growers so that’s a lot of money.”
For more information
Visit the Federal Department of Agriculture website: www.agriculture.gov.au
Visit the website for the National Fruit Fly Strategy Advisory Committee: www.planthealthaustralia.com.au
To read the original news stories regarding the announcement of the plan, visit www.abc.net.au