Lloyd Klumpp, chair of the National Fruit Fly Council, who is heading Australia’s offensive against the spread of the world's worst fruit pest, has admitted it may not be possible to save all areas. Klumpp said experts were debating whether it was possible to maintain pest-free status of all the fruit-growing areas in all states.
He said with Australian exports of horticultural produce worth $2.5 billion the numbers "looked like" coming out on the side of keeping up the fight. "It is an ongoing battle, I would not like to say we are giving up anywhere."
The Queensland fruit fly, a native species, is declared endemic in most states - Queensland, NSW and most recently in Victoria. There are outbreaks in South Australia, where border crossing officials still check travellers for fruit, and most concerning are recent discoveries in Perth. The fruit fly has been has eradicated from Perth seven times since 1989. Tasmania managed to eradicate a surprise outbreak in 2018.
Maintaining fruit fly free status allows WA growers access to export markets, such as avocados to Japan and strawberries to Thailand. Millions of dollars supplied by taxpayers and growers has been spent over the years to unsuccessfully combat fruit flies.
One of the more successful programs has been breeding and releasing sterile flies in target areas "which disrupts reproduction and suppresses pest population numbers".
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January 25, 2021 at 08:13PM
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