AU: Tomato exporters wait on NZ solution
Member for Burdekin Rosemary Menkens told State Parliament the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority's (APVMA) ban on the pesticide, dimethoate, is having a severe effect on the Queensland tomato and small crops industry. Dimethoate - now banned in Australia - is a requirement of entry into New Zealand as an insurance against fruit fly.
"While a minor-use permit application is currently before the APVMA for reconsideration, exporters are sitting waiting on a solution this has taken far too much time, and time is money," Mrs Menkens said.
"In the Bowen district alone, this will equate to a $6 million loss of export dollars this season, with previously New Zealand-bound tomatoes and capsicums now destined to cause an oversupply on the domestic market."
She said growers could not afford to be out of the New Zealand market because they stand to lose a long-standing market of over 25 years.
If Australia did not fulfil the New Zealand market, the country will look elsewhere for its fruit.
"The process of dimethoate application as a post-harvest treatment for fruit fly continues to be accepted by the APVMA for avocados, bananas and quite a few other fruits for sale within Australia, but not tomatoes."
Mrs Menkens said she has written to Federal Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Minister Joe Ludwig in the hope of resolving the issue before growers' livelihoods were adversely affected.
Source: nqr.farmonline.com.au