Tasmanian Biosecurity officials have given up trying to contain blueberry rust from the plant fungus, saying “the benefits of containment no longer outweigh the burdens”.
Key points:
- The fungal disease causes extensive defoliation and can kill severely infected plants
- Tasmania has been fighting unsuccessfully to keep it at bay
- Listing it as endemic means that restrictions on infected properties will be removed and farmers will have to live with and manage it.
The fungus, which first arrived in the island state in 2014, can cause extensive defoliation of blueberry plants and sometimes plant death.
Biosecurity Tasmania said it was impossible to stop the spread of the fungus, which travels through airborne spores, contaminated clothing or equipment.
“The containment approach that we’ve been taking for the last few years is clearly no longer working,” said head of plant protection Andrew Bishop.
“It has worked very well in the first few years, and there was always an attempt to slow the spread to allow growers to adapt to management, but last season we saw a higher number of infections.”
Blueberry rust was first detected in Tasmania in 2014. (Department of Primary Industries Victoria)
Organic farmers expect a drop in prices
Tasmania’s organic blueberry growers are devastated.
They will now be locked out of their lucrative South Australian market, which requires products to be from rust-free plants.
Organic blueberry grower Kent Mainwaring is one of those who will lose a market that gave them a premium price.
“It would make our operation here marginal, we depend on getting the peak in the market, if we lost our organic status, that would put us on the other side of the ledger,” Mainwaring said.
Kent Mainwaring says he will lose a lucrative market in South Australia. (ABC News: Tim Morgan)
It will also see organic blueberries reach other markets, alongside conventionally grown produce.
“The South Australian market has traditionally been a very strong market for us … any increase in supply in the Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane markets will reduce prices, I think,” Mainwaring said.
The drop in prices could be dramatic depending on how many surplus blueberries these markets can absorb.
“We can always expect blueberry consumption to increase year after year as it has,” Mainwaring said.
“They fought a lot”
Researchers are investigating sprays for organic blueberries, but a product is still missing. (ABC News: Clint Jasper)
Fruit Growers Tasmania chief executive Peter Cornish said blueberry rust-infected farms were in dire straits that were affecting their business and it was time to admit defeat.
“All credit to Biosecurity Tasmania and our growers, they’ve fought hard, they’ve fought hard in this battle to try and stop the spread,” he said.
“This last year has been very favorable for us [conditions] for the propagation of blueberry rust”.
Since it arrived eight years ago, hundreds of plants have been destroyed and tens of thousands of dollars spent as part of an eradication plan, Biosecurity Tasmania.
It was declared a success in mid-June 2016, but just a couple of months later a second outbreak was detected and a containment approach was adopted.
The Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture has been researching and evaluating sprays for use by organic growers.
Although this research is nearing completion and has promising results, it is expected to be some time before a product is ready for the market.
Want more news from Tasmania?
Set the ABC News website or app to ‘Tasmania Top Stories’ from the home page or app settings menu to continue to get the same national news but with a sprinkling of state stories more relevant
Here’s a taste of the latest stories from Tasmania: