Ban on imported frozen green prawns causes headache for takeaway restaurants

IF YOU’RE thinking of ordering a prawn dish from your local takeaway joint tonight, make sure you’ve got a second option in mind.

There is currently an outbreak of white spot disease in Australia’s prawn supply.

IF YOU’RE thinking of ordering a prawn dish from your local takeaway joint tonight, make sure you’ve got a second option in mind.

Some Australian restaurants are struggling to cope with the ban on imported frozen green prawns, thanks to an outbreak of white spot disease in Queensland.

Federal Agricultural Minister Barnaby Joyce announced the ban last month after the discovery of the highly contagious disease in six prawn farms. It’s believed our prawn supply became infected after fisherman used the imported frozen green prawns as bait.

“Once I heard yesterday morning that ... they detected white spot in green prawns in retail outlets, then that was, as far as I was concerned, the trigger for us to take more substantial action,” Mr Joyce said at the time.

“We are going back to those importers who brought the green prawns in and going through them with a fine-tooth comb in regards to their protocols and what they were doing.”

Signs outside takeaway restaurants, like this one out the front of Stir Crazy in Kirribilli, on Sydney’s lower north shore, have been spotted around the country.

This sign has been posted outside popular Thai restaurant Stir Crazy, in Sydney’s Kirribilli. Picture: News.com.au

The Australian Prawn Farmers’ Association executive director Helen Jenkins said it was expected that the ban would have an impact on some food businesses.

“But they did it for a good reason. We welcome the ban and hopefully it will clean up that industry,” Ms Jenkins told news.com.au.

“Importers have been rorting the system and getting their products through, giving the wrong samples. The whole thing needs to be tidied up.”

Last December there were concerns the white spot disease outbreak could mean Aussies would miss out of having fresh prawns for Christmas Day lunch.

At the time, Ms Jenkin said the disease outbreak would not affect most of our national prawn supply.

“These harvests are usually not ready for this time of year anyway. That’s not causing a shortage There are plenty of prawns to go around,” she said.

Has your local takeaway joint stopped selling prawn dishes? Send a photo to [e-mail] or tweet @beck_sullivan