Due to summer mango fruit fly incursions
Tougher South Australia import restrictions
One of the infested mango consignments had been subjected to a hot-water treatment and another to methyl-bromide fumigation. Geoff Raven, the manager for plant and food standards at Biosecurity South Australia, said investigations found both treatments had met existing protocols for interstate certification. "They found that the chemical fumigators actually complied with the protocols and with the heat treatment, again there was no non-conformance. So the protocols were followed to the letter, which tells us that there's a problem with the protocols."
According to abc.net.au, the resulting suspension of heat treatments has virtually banned the trade of organic fruit to South Australia. Fruit treated by methyl-bromide must now have a temperature of 16o Celsius, up from 12o, during the fumigation process. The higher temperature causes the larvae to become more active, which makes the pest more likely to ingest the chemical and die.
Biosecurity Queensland has revealed the consignment of infested mangoes treated by methyl-bromide had not originally been destined for South Australia, but Victoria.
