Australia: Death toll from rockmelon listeria rises to 5
Other than the three fatalities in Victoria, two people in New South Wales have also died from eating the tainted fruit before a national recall of this fruit, produced by Rombola Family Farms in the southwestern part of New South Wales.
Xinhuanet.com reports how Australia exports about US$15.6 million worth of rockmelons a year to countries including Singapore, New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates and Brunei, according to the Australian Melon Industry.
The effects of the listeria contamination are rippling onto Western Australia, where rockmelon growers are forced to cut jobs after sales plummet. Local sales of rockmelon plunged about 70 percent and exports, which account for about 10 percent of this state’s produce, have all but ground to a halt.
Consumers there are being urged to support the State’s embattled rockmelon industry. The local Department of Health said trace-back procedures had shown that no affected products have been sent to Western Australia, and the safety of locally grown fruit is not being questioned.
