Adelaide Hills Berry Farm set to lose $250k worth of stock because of fruit fly quarantine

An SA berry farm will be forced to destroy hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of produce because of an “unfair” fruit fly zoning issue.

Adelaide Hills berry farm brothers, Dominic and Sam Virgara walk through raspberries that cannot be picked and sold because they are on the edge of the fruit fly zone. Picture: Brett Hartwig

An SA berry farm will be forced to destroy nearly $250,000 worth of produce because they are within a fruit fly quarantine area, despite the pests never being detected on their property.

Adelaide Hills Berry Farm in Uraidla was notified by Department of Primary Industries and Regions (PIRSA) in January that they were within the Yellow Suspension Zone – which is in a 15km radius detection point of the Queensland fruit fly – and had to stop selling their produce immediately.

The outbreak was reported after fruit fly maggots were found in homegrown peaches on a Glynde property in January.

The quarantine is expected to be lifted in May.

Dominic and Sam Virgara said they will have to destroy nearly $250k of produce. Picture: Brett Hartwig

Farm manager Dominic Virgara, 64, said the ban had been “devastating” for them.

“It’s basically all our turnover (for the season),” he said.

Mr Virgara said they sold 90 per cent of their fruit to the Adelaide Farmers Market with lines of up to 100m long each Sunday, as well as at roadside stalls and pick-your-own sessions at their farm.

Now he said they could only sell their produce within the 15km radius of the quarantine zone if it was sprayed.

Sam, 67 (left), and Dominic Virgara (right) in happier times. Picture: Supplied

“We’re allowed to move if we fumigate our berries with methyl bromide,” Mr Virgara said.

However, he said the business used biological pest controls because “that’s what people at the market want, that’s what differentiates us”.

“That’s what we believe in, and we just refuse to do that. For us that would destroy our brand, so we would rather take the losses and not fool or compromise the public who come and buy our berries.

“It’s just not fair, there’s no solutions.

“We are innocent bystanders, and we’re at the end of our working life. And this is what we get when it’s nothing to do with us.”

They say there is no solution to their problem. Picture: Brett Hartwig

In a statement, a PIRSA spokeswoman said the current movement restrictions were a nationally agreed set of rules for a fruit fly outbreak and were not determined by individual states.

“The current fruit movement restrictions is a requirement determined under the Australian National Fruit Fly Management Protocol,” said the spokeswoman.

“The movement of South Australia’s fruit fly susceptible produce (which is valued at $1.3bn), and the state’s current pest-free status, is dependent on these protocols and processes being followed.”

The spokeswoman said PIRSA was undertaking produce movement controls with intensive on-ground response activities and expected to lift the quarantine by May 9.

Originally published as Adelaide Hills Berry Farm set to lose $250k worth of stock because of fruit fly quarantine