Strawberry growers deep in the red as crisis bites
People who sabotage fruits with needles will face a mandatory three years in jail under a new plan from the Victorian Liberals.
People who put needles and foreign objects into strawberries and other foods would face a mandatory three years in jail under a new plan from the Victorian Liberals.
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy told Melbourne’s 3AW radio this morning he wants an amendment to the Victorian Crimes Act that would officially outlaw anyone from interfering with food.
The Liberal leader’s new plan comes after dozens of incidents nationwide of needles being found in strawberries, apples and bananas.
“I’m going to call for … a new offence of contaminating or interfering with food which will have a three year mandatory jail sentence.
“We can’t let these people hold us hostage, and I think Victorians are being held hostage … we have to send a message to these people that when you’re caught, there will be a serious penalty.
“Just think of all the food that’s been wasted. Think of the parents … I’ve had enough of it.”
Mr Guy’s call for mandatory sentencing follows his months-long campaign to introduce fixed jail terms for a range of violent offences. Victorian Labor has in the past said they are philosophically opposed to mandatory sentencing in most cases.
There have been several confirmed incidents of strawberry contamination in Victoria with strawberry punnets in two regional supermarkets found to have needles inserted in them.
Queensland and NSW have had the most claims of strawberry contamination but one claim of a Brisbane girl receiving an injury from a contaminated strawberry was found to be false yesterday.
Police in Western Australia are now investigating ten reports of needles inside strawberries, double the number of incidents since yesterday afternoon when a child bit into a strawberry and found a needle at a Perth primary school.
“WA Police Force can confirm we are now investigating 10 incidents of needles being located in strawberries,” police said in a media release issued to newsrooms this morning.
“Five incidents have been reported to police since late yesterday (18 September 2018) from the suburbs of Bicton, Darlington, Hocking, Morley, and Rossmoyne.
“WA Police Force is joining with other agencies in appealing for people to take care when preparing strawberries for consumption.”
Health officials in WA yesterday began inspecting strawberry fields and packing sheds in a bid to establish any weak points in the supply chain.
Former deputy PM Barnaby Joyce said the strawberry saboteurs who have forced the industry to the brink of collapse must be “pursued and hunted down”.
“The reward... has to be substantially increased to hunt this person down,” Mr Joyce told the Nine Network on Wednesday.
“It is not only a threat to the strawberry industry, it is a threat across the food production industry. We have got to treat it as such.”
"It is not only a threat to the strawberry industry, but it is a threat to the food production industry." -@Barnaby_Joyce #9Today pic.twitter.com/HRABiFoDdD
— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) September 18, 2018
Deputy Nationals leader Bridget McKenzie described the sabotage as “absolutely disgusting.”
“I just think it’s absolutely disgusting that somebody in our community thinks this is a good idea to actually put needles in our fabulously clean and green produce,” she said.
Farmers have been forced to destroy thousands tonnes of strawberries as Australians turn away from the popular fruit.
Mr Joyce urged the public to continue purchasing the berries in the face of the deliberate contamination.
“We can show our support for the industries by buying strawberries,” he said. “If we just take them off the shelves, we are saying to this person, ‘you succeeded - your criminal act succeeded’.”
The federal government has announced $1 million to assist the strawberry industry in dealing with the escalating crisis.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says those responsible for sabotaging Queensland’s strawberry industry should expect little sympathy, as she announced a statewide “Strawberry Sunday” initiative to bolster the industry.
Addressing state parliament in Brisbane, Ms Palaszczuk described the people copying this crime are ‘in many ways worse’ than the original offender.
“An act like this — intending to cause grievous bodily harm — carries a 10 year jail term,” the Premier said. “I doubt anyone in Queensland will give those responsible any sympathy if they spend a very long time in jail.”
Ms Palaszczuk said a team of 100 police, including 60 detectives, had been committed to solving the “despicable” crime. A reward of $100,000 had been offered for any information leading to an arrest.
“$100,000 is a lot of money,” Ms Palaszczuk told parliament. “Someone knows something. You can make your call anonymous — we don’t care — as long as we catch those responsible.”
Ms Palaszczuk also announced a statewide “Strawberry Sunday” to support the flailing industry. “Make this coming Sunday Strawberry Sunday and show off your strawberry recipes,” she said. “That way we can say to whoever is behind this – you won’t win.”
The Queensland government has committed a million dollars to the strawberry industry to “help promote consumer confidence and investigate how to improve traceability and integrity in the supply chain”.
Ms Palaszczuk told the parliament the million dollar contribution had been matched by the federal government, and encouraged support from Queensland residents.
“In times of crisis Queensland comes together,” she said. “We’ve seen it in floods. We’re seeing it in the drought and we will show it to our strawberry growers.”
Growers deep in the red
Strawberry growers are dumping thousands of tonnes of fruit, laying off workers and killing crops they cannot sell as the contamination scare widens.
Farmer associations called for calm and “common sense” as sales plummeted and prices hit 50c a punnet.
Police think the initial sabotage of Queensland-grown strawberries with needles and pins — first detected in punnets sold in Woolworths 10 days ago — has triggered copycat actions and, potentially, “self-contamination’’ by some of those reporting incidents.
Late yesterday the federal government moved to protect Australia’s $30 million strawberry export industry, imposing rules requiring all strawberries for export to be screened by metal detectors on farm or before shipping.
Glasshouse Mountains grower Aidan Young, whose family has been farming strawberries since 1922, yesterday sadly ploughed ripe strawberries into the ground.
Normally at this harvest peak, Mr Young would be sending 20,000 punnets a day to major fruit wholesale markets in Sydney and Brisbane from his family’s Braetop Berries farm near Caboolture, in Queensland’s Moreton Bay region. This week he has sold less than half — devastatingly, he has to pick them to encourage the next crop, and then dump them in a farm pit to rot.
He has killed some of the crop with chemical spray, as there is no point financially in growing and harvesting fruit to sell for 50c a punnet, just a third of their cost. “This is detrimental to everyone, it’s devastating; through no fault of our own, every strawberry grower in Australia is having to pay for this,” Mr Young said.
There have now been at least 25 cases reported across six states of shop-bought fruit containing hidden needles. However, Queensland police yesterday said an earlier allegation of a child suffering a minor injury after biting into a sabotaged strawberry at a Brisbane school was false.
The contamination has devastated Australia’s $400m strawberry industry, leaving few of its 620 growers unscathed, even though only six brands — Berry Obsession, Berry Licious, Love Berry, Donnybrook Berries, Delightful Strawberries and Oasis Berries — have been found with needles inside punnets.
No blackmail demands have been made and the motive remains a mystery.
Aldi is now allowing some non-contaminated brands back on its shelves, as is Coles if the brands have been scanned by a metal detector.
In a heart-rending social media post, Stephanie Chheang, stepdaughter of Donnybrook Berries owner Joe Cufari, yesterday described the devastation of being caught up in the scandal. “This is no doubt the worst thing to ever happen to my family; this (strawberry pile) is worth more than you could ever imagine and within three days we lost it all,” she wrote alongside a video of vast mounds of fruit being dumped.
Queensland Strawberry Growers Association vice-president Adrian Schultz said a single act of “commercial terrorism” last week, when the first needles were found, brought a multi-million-dollar industry “to its knees”.
“I’m angry for all the associated people; it’s the farmers, the people who supply them, the packaging people, the truckies with families to support, who suddenly lose their jobs … it’s far-reaching,” Mr Schultz said.
Additional reporting: Paige Taylor, Richard Ferguson, Tom McKinnon. Jared Owens, AAP
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