SA Tomato owner fears $100,000 fine after virus test delays

The owners of a quarantined tomato seedling business say they have sunk to a new low and fear a massive fine after a dispute with state government bureaucrats.

A distraught SA tomato seedling grower fears bureaucratic bungling and test delays could cost him a $100,000 fine despite doing “everything in his power” to comply with strict regulations to secure his first income source in five months.

SA Tomato owner Peter Petsios said he and his wife Oriana had sunk to “the lowest point we’ve ever felt” after test results for tomato brown rugose fruit virus were not returned in time for a long-planned departure of seedlings from their Virginia property.

The Petsios family business, which supplies high-performing plants across Australia, was shut down in August in the wake of the contagious virus being detected in a glasshouse of one of their clients, Perfection Fresh at Two Wells.

The quarantine ruling forced SA Tomato to destroy $1.3m worth of plants and cease operation, but in November the couple won national approval to grow and deliver an order to Victorian client Katunga Fresh.

That approval came with the requirement of Department of Primary Industries and Regions, SA staff to send numerous samples for testing to ensure all plants were free of the virus.

The samples were collected over a four-week period but Mr Petsios said only the first test result had come back by the time a truck from Victoria arrived to collect 106,000 seedlings on December 16.

SA Tomato owner Oriana Petsios. Picture: Brett Hartwig

Mr Petsios said he had spoken with PIRSA officials in the days leading up to the truck’s arrival, reminded them of the upcoming deadline and no-one had informed him the potential lack of test results would be an issue.

But he started to worry when he rang a PIRSA official again after the truck had arrived and asked them to send the official approval for the truck to depart carrying the plants.

“He said, ‘OK, give me an hour and I’ll get you the stuff – but he never called us back,” Mr Petsios said. “The truck driver was saying he had to leave, and I figured PIRSA knows about it, so the truck left.”

Mr Petsios said about an hour after the truck had driven off, another PIRSA official called back and said the departure was not approved because test results were still pending. Mr Petsios said if the truck had not departed on time, he feared Katunga Fresh could sue him for $9m for failing to deliver on an agreed contract.

He is now expecting a sanction for breaching his quarantine restrictions and the joy and relief that came with securing SA Tomato’s first income in nearly five months had turned sour.

“This is probably as low as low as point that we’ve ever felt,” he said.

“We just hope that this just goes away at this stage. But I think they’re going to penalise me, even if it’s a warning, or it could be $100,000 fine, and that’s offensive, because I didn’t do anything wrong. I followed the protocol to the letter.”

SA Tomato owner Oriana Petsios. Picture: Brett Hartwig

Response incident controller Peter Appleford said PIRSA would work with SA Tomato to resolve the matter. He said the business had breached its quarantine order by allowing the truck to leave and that test results, which showed the plants did not contain the virus, became available on December 18.

Opposition spokeswoman Nicola Centofanti said SA Tomato’s latest “kick in the guts” was “another example of primary industries being low on the list of priorities” for the state government.

“I am constantly hearing from growers that they are not getting the support they need, and in some instances even feel hindered by government due to constant delays in sample and testing,” Ms Centofanti said.