AgroPages-South Australia expands restrictions on WA produce to combat tomato potato psyllid-Agricultural news

South Australian authorities will further restrict the movement of Western Australian horticultural produce in an effort to prevent the spread of tomato potato psyllid.

The latest restrictions follow suit with New South Wales and Victorian restrictions to add a broad range of product line restrictions, in addition to those already in place for the tomato potato plant family.

Department of Agriculture and Food WA chief plant biosecurity officer Sonya Broughton said the move was not unexpected.

"Basically what we are seeing is harmonisation across the different jurisdictions," she said.

"There were already new restrictions put in place by New South Wales and Victoria, so we were expecting South Australia and Queensland and all the other jurisdiction to follow suit."

Tomato potato psyllid attacks a range of plants including potato, tomato and capsicum, leading to loss of plant vigour and yield.

The discovery of psyllid earlier this year was the first time the sap-sucking insect had been detected in Australia, but it is present in the United States, Central America and New Zealand.

Products affected by the latest extension of restrictions include 18 plant families of species that are considered secondary hosts to the insect, including strawberries, apples, lettuce, broccoli and beans.

Produce will need to be treated with effective insecticide or methyl bromide and inspected before it can head to the restricted states.

Washing produce removes psyllid

Dr Broughton said there was one positive to the South Australian decision, in that the state's protocols would include washing secondary host produce.

"Up until now we haven't seen that in any of the New South Wales or Victorian conditions, so what we are hoping is that we can get harmonisation with the rest of the jurisdiction with South Australian ones," she said.

Vegetables WA market development manager Claire McClelland confirmed many of the product lines were already washed.

She said the psyllid was costing the West Australian horticultural industry millions of dollars.

"The new restrictions are proving very difficult for a lot of WA growers. These are products that are not considered true hosts, in as much as the psyllid can't complete its full life cycle on those crops," Ms McClelland said.

"These are lines that have significant trade over east.

"We are hearing from some growers [that they are losing] in excess of $250,000 a week on some of their lines."

The psyllid has now been found on a total of 73 WA properties, most in the Perth metro area, but with 17 in regional places including Busselton, Yarloop, Margaret River, Balingup, Manjimup and Dandaragan.

More than 1,000 properties across regional and metropolitan areas have been inspected to date, and thousands of surveillance sticky traps have been deployed on commercial and residential properties around the state since surveillance activities began.

The department is encouraging all producers planning to export produce interstate or overseas to check on specific requirements with Quarantine WA.