Tomato virus pivot shifts strategy, giving hope to South Australian growers

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Tomato growers impacted by strict restrictions following the detection of a fruit virus last year say they hope they can now rebuild their lives as the South Australian government considers relaxing the rules. Officials say they've given up hope of eradicating the tomato virus and are now focusing on managing it.

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00:00Millions of tomato plants thrown in the bin and hundreds of job losses were the consequences

00:08for Perfection Fresh last year when a tomato virus was first detected.

00:12It was heartbreaking, it was devastating, words fail me, but it was terrible.

00:20One of the worst days of my career was the day that I had to stand in front of nearly

00:24500 people and tell them that we had no job for them.

00:27The major fruit and vegetable grower north of Adelaide was one of three impacted businesses

00:31to face strict restrictions after officials decided to try to eradicate the tomato brown

00:36rugose fruit virus in South Australia rather than manage the virus.

00:41Now the National Management Group has conceded eradication is no longer possible with the

00:45virus detected in Victoria.

00:47Of the three businesses it's been incredibly difficult and for others who were originally

00:52traced properties it was also very challenging.

00:54But we have over 200 growers here in South Australia and they have been able to continue

00:59to trade with the other states throughout this time.

01:02It could have been better managed in our opinion.

01:05We advocated from day one that this virus needed to be managed and eradication was impossible,

01:15we thought.

01:16Despite the changed approach, the three impacted businesses will continue to face strict conditions

01:21when moving tomatoes into state, at least for now.

01:24But the government says it's now weighing up options to change those testing requirements.

01:28We're working with the other jurisdictions to work out what that will look like.

01:33Some jurisdictions may still have testing requirements and that's what's being worked through as we

01:37speak.

01:38The National Management Group has impacted growers after a tough few months.

01:49encial.com

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