Tomato growers face ‘devastating’ effects of fast-spreading virus

A major tomato farm is facing losses in the “tens of millions” after it was forced to destroy 1.2-million plants due to a highly contagious disease.

Victorian tomato growers are on high alert after a highly contagious plant virus has forced the hands of producers in South Australia.

The federal government said an outbreak of the tomato brown rugose fruit virus, detected in South Australia, could reduce marketable yield in the vegetable industry by up to 75 per cent.

Perfection Fresh at Two Wells is one of the three farms under indefinite quarantine for the ToBRFV in the Northern Adelaide Plains. It was first detected in August, with only two Australian sites able to test for the virus. Authorities have collected more than 3600 samples so far from 27 properties.

Perfection Fresh chief executive Michael Simonetta said 300 of the company’s workers needed to be stood down, with the number expected to grow due to a “forced and unnecessary Covid-style shut down”.

“The impact of this virus has been devastating, in terms of lost jobs, the environmental impact in destroying 1.2 million perfectly healthy plants, and financial losses,” he said.

“Final losses are going to easily be in the tens of millions of dollars.”

ToBRFV affects tomatoes, capsicums and chillies, and can spread through infected seeds or plants, direct plant to plant contact, contaminated equipment or irrigation water.

It can survive for months, and symptoms include mottled patterns on leaves, yellowing, deformities and uneven ripening on fruit.

In Victoria, Kagome field operations general manager Chris Taylor said he had been heavily involved in biosecurity discussions, with planting underway.

He said the government had a strong approach, but it was crucial to keep the virus isolated.

“It’s something that’s pretty unknown at the moment, because of our broad scale and open field rather than glasshouse growing, we’re unsure of the commercial impacts for our industry,” he said.

“We can separate our farms into biosecurity sections so if there was an outbreak we could isolate our farm and have minimal entries.

“It’s disappointing it’s come in, we carry inventory of seed ourselves and we get it mostly out of the USA but it all goes through high scrutiny.”

The disease has previously been found in Europe, the Middle East, China, Mexico and the United States.

Mr Simonetta said before government intervention, they were managing the disease with best-practice standards after consulting with experts in Europe and the US.

“Even if we are given the all clear to trade again, it will still take us 12-18 months for us to be able to return to full production,” he said.

Most South Australian growers can continue exporting produce interstate without further restriction, apart from Western Australia and Queensland.

South Australian Primary Industries and Regional Development Minister Clare Scriven said while the virus was “potentially devastating” for growers, it was important to remember it had no impact on human health.

She said seed tracing showed positive results for two lines imported from Türkiye, and as a precautionary approach the federal government had suspended the country’s seed testing certification acceptance for imports to Australia.

Suspect detections should be reported to the Exotic Plant Pest Hotline on 1800 084 881.