‘It’s like a gun to the head’: Panama disease threatens Aussie bananas

A soil-borne disease has infected a sixth Queensland banana farm, putting the industry on notice.

A disease that could render Australia’s $600m banana industry unviable is spreading in Queensland.

Panama disease tropical race 4 has been detected at a sixth commercial banana farm in Tully, on Queensland’s Cassowary Coast, where almost four in every five Australian bananas are grown.

Biosecurity Queensland yesterday advised the Australian Banana Growers’ Council that samples taken from suspected plants had returned positive results for the disease, which is known as the greatest threat to worldwide banana production.

Panama TR4 is a soil borne fungal disease that blocks the plant’s vascular system, literally starving it to death. It can survive in soil for decades, making it impossible to eradicate, and spreads easily, through root-to-root contact, contaminated soil and water or even from dirt in the sole of a shoe from an infested property.

Surveillance underway in Far North Queensland due to increasing detections of Panama TR4 in the Tully Valley.

There are currently no cures and no varieties have been developed yet that are resistant to the disease.

This latest detection is the first in Queensland since 2020, when two farms in the Tully Valley were found with the disease. The state recorded its first detection in 2015, 18 years after it was first detected in Australia in the Northern Territory.

Australian Banana Growers’ Council acting chair Leon Collins said the industry was very concerned. “It’s a matter of when, not if,” he said, referring to its march across the state.

“Our heart goes to the grower at this time. But this is an industry problem, because it means this disease is marching on, it’s not going away, it’s actually spreading. Both my neighbours are positive, so I’m next in the firing line. It’s like having a gun to the head,” he said.

Mr Collins owns three commercial banana farms in Qld, two in the Tully Valley and one in Lakeland.

Wash-down facility designs released by the Panama TR4 Program will help banana growers protect their farms from Panama disease tropical race 4.

The detection comes amid mounting pressure on Australia’s biosecurity resources as it prepares a defence against an incursion of foot and mouth disease, which has spread to Indonesia and has been described as a “ticking time bomb” for Australia’s livestock industry.

Lumpy skin disease is also on biosecurity’s radar after entering Indonesia three months ago. Its arrival on Australian shores would close lucrative beef exports overnight.

The Tully farmer whose four trees have been affected with Panana TR4 has had the infected trees removed and burned, with the sites now permanently isolated.

Biosecurity Queensland is working in partnership with the industry to continue surveillance in the area.