Australian grape growers face Chinese-owned ADAMA over contamination

Aussie grape growers are preparing to go up against a Chinese state-owned chemical giant in court over a contaminated product that destroyed their vines and left them without an income.

EXCLUSIVE: A Group of Australian table grape growers are preparing to go up against a Chinese state-owned chemical giant in a legal battle for millions of dollars in compensation after a contaminated chemical destroyed their vines.

And The Weekly Times can expose that the tainted chemical was recalled more than three months after chemical company ADAMA was alerted to issues with its product – a decision the industry fears could have jeopardised Australian access to lucrative export markets, worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

An investigation by The Weekly Times can reveal:

AT least 11 growers are seeking more than $7 million in compensation from ADAMA after its Gibberellic Acid, used to promote fruit growth, was found to contain Clopyralid – a weed killer toxic to table grapes and not registered for use on fruit.

DAMAGE from the contaminated Gibberellic Acid was brought to ADAMA’s attention in October 2018. However, the company did not recall the product until February 13, 2019 – about two weeks after growers started harvesting their table grapes.

THE federal government body responsible for policing chemical companies, Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority, which is funded by the companies it regulates, is yet to complete its investigation into the incident, more than 20 months after the recall.

NEW table grape varieties which were being grown as part of a trial by Australia’s leading science agency, CSIRO, were damaged by the contaminated chemical, but it is understood CSIRO is not taking legal action.

One table grape grower, who did not want to be named, said the contaminated Gibberellic Acid had “crippled” his family’s business.

“We haven’t had an income and it’s taken a huge toll on our mental health,” the grower said.

“A mistake like this puts farmers, and consumers, at risk”.

Most of the 11 growers who sprayed the contaminated chemical have or are in the process of pulling out their vines because they were so badly damaged.

Eight growers, mostly located in the Sunraysia district where most of the country’s table grapes are grown, have commenced legal action in the Victorian County Court against ADAMA and the retailer they bought the Gibberellic Acid from, National Agricultural Services.

Growers are claiming to have lost 3-4 years worth of income due to damaged vines. Picture: Supplied

Court documents show these growers were seeking about $3.8 million in loss and damages but it is understood ongoing losses now mean they are seeking more than $7 million.

Solicitor Tyler Wolff, who is representing most of the growers, said they had lost 3-4 years worth of income.

“It has hit the smaller growers really hard and put emotional strain on their business and family life. Some have had to sell permanent water while they wait for money to come in,” he said.

“It has hit the bigger growers hard as they haven’t been able to pursue opportunities such as expanding their operations. They also employed workers so it’s cost the town jobs as well”.

Parties on either side of the case are to advise the court if they are ready to go to trial by the end of next month. Mr Wolff has asked for the matter to be listed for trial, but said he hoped it would not come to that.

Mr Wolff said ADAMA had provided some compensation to his clients.

It follows an investigation by The Weekly Times in 2017 that revealed a combined 200,000 litres of contaminated herbicides, had been recalled by NuFarm and Syngenta, with little effort made by the companies or the APVMA to inform farmers.

EDITORIAL: WHY A TAINTED SYSTEM OF CHEMICAL RECALLS HURTS AG

Victorian Farmers Federation vice president Emma Germano said there shouldn’t be a “culture of secrecy” and there were “clearly deficiencies in the system” around recalling contaminated chemicals that needed to be addressed for the sake of Australia’s “clean green image”.

“No one is saying everything is going to be completely perfect and we’re not going to have chemical contaminations, but what we want to know is when they happen there’s a system in place that fixes them and compensates the grower for something that is not the growers fault,” she said.

“When there’s legitimate evidence there might be a problem with a product it should be made a matter of urgency. It doesn’t actually take that long for things to be tested.

“It also doesn’t take long for someone to wipe out their entire livelihood and then that could transpire into wiping out the entire livelihood of an entire sector. If an (affected) product was to get into a market because there’s a time lag (on a recall) you could see a particular market shut down overnight.”

The Australian table grape industry exported more than $600 million worth of table grapes last financial year, the first fresh fruit industry in Australia to break the half-billion dollar mark.

The country relies heavily on its reputation of high quality produce for access to these markets.

The industry is confident no affected table grapes were sold.

Ms Germano raised concerns about the agriculture chemical industry’s regulator, APVMA, being majority funded by the companies it regulates.

“Is it truly an independent regulator? If it’s not we have to ask the government to resource this differently. Clearly we need something that is a bit more rigorous.”

ADAMA, which is owned by ADAMA Agricultural Solutions, a subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned ChemChina, would not answer questions from The Weekly Times. Neither would National Agricultural Services.

At the time of the recall, ADAMA claimed a labelling issue occurred to the tail end of the batch of Gibberellic Acid, during the manufacturing process conducted by a third party.

The Weekly Times understands the third party was Autopak, an agriculture chemical manufacturer in NSW. Autopak did not respond to questions.

The APVMA said it was unable to comment “on matters currently under investigation”.

In 2019-20 the APVMA received 280 allegations against the companies it regulates and from these referred two for prosecution and provided nine with formal warnings.

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