Berry farmers in QLD battle new invasive pest

0:00Well, a destructive pest insect detected in Australia for the first time is threatening millions of dollars worth of berry crops. Experts are wanting the invasive flower thrips could also spread to vegetables and flowers, potentially pushing up food prices. Authorities still don't know how the pest breached Australia's buyer security measures. It comes as farmers are continuing to battle the effects of the veroamite, which is destroying bee colonies across the country. Adrian Schultz is president of the Queensland Strawberry Grows Association and joins me this morning. A good evening, Adrian. Welcome to breakfast. Morning, Sally. Thank you very much. Tell us about this insect. What does it do to berry crops? So this in Tonza is a rasping insect and it creates some damage to the structure of the skin from a really early stage, in the flowering stage actually. And that damage stays with the fruit.

1:00It results in what we call a bit of a bronzing colour to the fruit. But as I said, it breaks down the structural integrity of the skin. So every time we get a little bit of rain, even three mils, which wouldn't normally bother us. The fruit basically falls apart. Is there any way to control it or deal with it, Adrian? Look, it's one of the things we're looking into. It's a pest all around the world. There are predator bugs that will control it. But generally that's been successful in protected cropping where they grow their strawberries or their raspberries under tunnels because the predator itself is quite oddly enough is fragile and large changes in temperature or use of other sprays, fertilizers and so forth can actually damage it. But we're doing a lot of trial work on farms. Obviously the Queensland season is coming to an end and we're trying to find some answers before next season. The most of Australia's strawberries come out of Queensland, Adrian?

2:03All of Australia's strawberries come out of Queensland in the winter season. So we're about to change over from the winter season into summer and then you start getting production in places like Stantle, Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania. Do we know how long this pest has been in the country or is it quite difficult to tell what's gone on here? So Sally, the best that we can find or determine at this stage is that it was detected probably around three years ago and it was unidentified because there's a whole range of different strip pests that are around all the time and it's only because it flared up this year and we do believe it's mostly to do with the weather. That people were able to identify it and realise that it was the intonsa variant that's probably come in from New Zealand. Australia's biosecurity measures are they adequate for this sort of thing? Look, this is very difficult and it's obviously highlights the importance of people declaring

3:06if they've been on a farm when they come in from overseas but this particular pest can live on people's clothes for up to three or four days, maybe even a bit longer. So it is difficult. Somebody could visit a farm two days before leaving the country and then come into Australia and come back to their own farm or visit a farm and possibly bring this pest in with them. So it's a very, very difficult one to try and capture. Adrian, I'm talking to you this morning from our studio at Parliament House in Canberra. There's a lot of debate on it at the moment about migration. How important is migration to your industry for picking and so on on your properties? So it's interesting that you were talking about that because it's something that's very, very important to us. The Palm scheme where we bring in workers from Vanauar to East Tee Maries, Fiji, so forth. That has been fantastic and it's great for the country and it's great for those countries.

4:07But it doesn't meet all of the requirements. So there's still, I would say more than 50% of farmers still require backpacks and we would actually like the backpacks removed from this whole migration discussion because they're not taking up any housing. They most of them have vehicles that they live in or they live in hostels. And while they're in Australia, most of their money goes back into existing in Australia and holidaying in Australia. So when we're talking about housing pressures, these guys aren't the people that are doing that. And just finally, some farmers are facing difficult times at the moment, but there is a bit of a silver lining. Tell me about this weekend's world record attempt in in Bunderburg just briefly Adrian. Well, this is great. We've got hardly enough Bunderburg is an area where the strip has not caused any damage. We've got a large farm up there called triple S strawberries.

5:09And we've got two world record attempts. So the Guinness Book of Records is going to be there. So I encourage anybody who can get along and be involved, get your name in the Guinness Book of Records. One of them is for the most of people to pick a strawberry at any one time and we're aiming for 2,000 people in the field. And the other one is how many strawberries you can eat in a minute. And I think the world record is currently around 1 to 1.2 kilos. And that's actually quite a lot of strawberries when you're trying to do it. I was going to put myself forward for that record, but a kilo or so. I don't think I'd be even close Adrian. I better put in some training before next year, perhaps. Well, that's what we'd like everybody to do. Everybody's got a train. Adrian, is any strawberries as possible? Good to talk to you this morning. Thank you very much for talking about a few things that are happening for the industry. And we'll talk to you again down the track. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Sally. Thank you for your interest.