Queensland farmers urge home gardeners to be vigilant as tomato virus strategy shifts
Tomato brown rugose fruit virus spreads easily between plants. (Supplied: PIRSA)
In short:
Biosecurity experts and industry representatives have declared tomato brown rugose virus not "technically feasible" to eradicate.
Queensland will keep restrictions on the movement of tomatoes, chillies and capsicums, despite the change in strategy.
What's next?
Farmers are calling for industry members and home gardeners to stay vigilant and prevent the disease spreading.
Queensland farmers are urging home gardeners planting tomatoes, chillies and capsicums to be vigilant over fears a highly contagious virus will spread.
The state is continuing to restrict the movement of seeds, plants and fruit, as well as machinery, equipment and packaging from areas affected by tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV).
First detected in South Australia last year, it has since been found on a farm in Victoria, but experts and industry have abandoned eradication efforts and will instead move to a management strategy.
Farmers, fearing hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, are pleading with industry and home gardeners to hold the line.
Movements limited
The virus is not harmful to humans, but it causes brown or yellow spots on leaves, fruit and stems of tomatoes, capsicums and chillies.
The infected fruit can ripen irregularly or be deformed.
It can reduce crop yields by 70 per cent, and there is no treatment or commercially available varieties of tomato that are resistant.
Acting Victorian chief plant health officer Stephen Dibley said efforts to rid Australia of the virus had failed.
"The biology of the virus makes it very hard to eradicate," Dr Dibley said.
"We found it in contained environments, which is why we undertook the eradication initially, but it has proved a challenge to actually remove all traces of the virus."
Queensland remains free of the virus, but Dr Dibley said there could be undetected cases.
"We have no evidence of it being elsewhere, but there are still questions about the most recent detections," he said.
"We're still trying to understand where these new detections have come from."
As well as tomatoes, Queensland grows 66 per cent of the national capsicum crop and 90 per cent of the chilli crop.
Biosecurity Queensland chief plant health manager Michael Reid said the movement control order had been extended for three months on March 16.
Michael Reid says movement controls for tomatoes remain in place. (Supplied)
"What's really important from a Queensland perspective is making sure we protect those industries for as long as possible,"he said.
Once it expired, Mr Reid said a team of experts would revisit the order to assess the risk to Queenslanders and production systems.
"We will be taking a risk-based approach to our regulation, making sure that we protect our industries," he said.
'Wake-up call' to growers
In significant growing areas like Bundaberg, farmers are conducting voluntary in-field testing for peace of mind that their crops are virus-free.
Over the past 10 months, farmer group Bundaberg Fruit and Vegetable Growers has held almost weekly biosecurity meetings to monitor where locals are sourcing their seedlings from.
Chief executive Bree Watson said the National Management Group's decision would change how farmers managed and monitored the virus.
Bree Watson says home gardeners play an important role in biosecurity. (ABC News: Johanna Marie)
"It shifts the responsibility for monitoring and containing it more onto industry and individual businesses than it does on government departments," Ms Watson said.
She urged home gardeners to take part in the biosecurity effort and learn what to look for in their own vegetable patches.
"It can be found in backyard gardens and a lot of people don't realise the huge risk that it can have to our commercial producers, which may be just down the road from them,"she said.
"They should be checking their plants regularly for anything that's showing signs of disease."
Chillies are also susceptible to the disease. (ABC Rural: Marty McCarthy)
Ms Watson said it was especially important for home gardeners to make sure their seeds and seedlings came from reputable suppliers.
Despite being far from the southern border, north Queensland's tomato-growing region around Bowen, south of Townsville, is on high alert.
"This tomato virus is a little humdinger," Bowen Gumlu Growers Association president Carl Walker said.
"We've got hundreds of millions of dollars a year just in tomatoes alone in this region … it could seriously destroy the tomato industry across Australia if it's allowed to spread.
Carl Walker says the virus would be devastating for Queensland farmers. (ABC Rural: Tom Major)
"It's a wake-up call for all growers to be very vigilant with their biosecurity because it can destroy our industry just, bang, like that.
"If we do get it, God help us … it's hundreds of millions of dollars worth of production and thousands of jobs, which is not what our economy needs."
Exports remain blocked
While the state has yet to contend with an outbreak, the virus is already causing losses.
New Zealand suspended imports from all Australian states apart from Queensland when the virus was detected in South Australia.
Tomato and capsicum seeds from Australia must also be tested before they arrive.
Capsicums and chillies are also included in Queensland's movement control order. (ABC Rural: Andrew Chounding)
In 2023, Australia sent more than 530,000 kilograms of tomatoes to New Zealand.
While exports account for only a small portion of sales compared to the $500 million domestic market, Ms Watson said it was a vital avenue for growers who had access to it.
"We need to make sure they've got a few options on the table of different customers that they can sell to,"she said.
In a statement, New Zealand's Ministry for Primary Industries said: "We are closely monitoring the situation in Australia and if there is any significant change in distribution, or which crops it (ToBRFV) is affecting, we will review the current import rules.
"Although Australia has announced they will no longer be pursuing eradication, all of the controls that have been in place to limit spread of the virus remain."