by Carl Curtain, abc news
The Federal Department of Agriculture has released a draft report proposing the importation of dragon fruit from the South-East Asian country, provided quarantine and food safety measures are met.
The report identifies seven species of pests, fruit fly and mealybug, which would require risk management measures.
Liza Marasigan, who has 3,000 dragon fruit trees in Darwin’s rural area, said she was not convinced the measures would be adhered to.
“If the fruit comes in here and they have some diseases on them, then that can affect a lot of the growers here in Australia,” she said.
“[Vietnamese farmers] use chemicals that we are not even permitted to use here in Australia.”
Australia’s dragon fruit is grown in the Northern Territory and Queensland but it is unclear how many tonnes are produced each year.
A Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation report in 2012 recorded a combined 751 tonnes were produced.
Ms Marasigan said the additional fruit from Vietnam would easily flood the small Australian market.
“It’s such a niche market; it’s just big enough for the local growers to supply without flooding the market,” she said.
“We roughly do about 20,000 trays throughout the year and we supply throughout Australia to every state.”
The NT Farmers Association will be making a submission on the draft report, calling for tighter biosecurity restrictions.
Industry development manager Greg Owens said he accepted free trade between the two countries but the pest and disease risks were a concern.
“As long as the Australian biosecurity authorities make sure they manage that closely,” he said.
“The other thing that we’re always concerned about is that any imported fruit meets our food quality standards.
“So that’s mentioned in the report, but there’s no detail given.”
In 2014, Vietnam’s Vice Minister for Agriculture spoke with ABC Rural about his country’s interest to export tropical fruits to Australia.
The draft report is open for submissions until November 14.
Source: abc news