Tomato brown rugose virus is infecting Australian crops but farmers who are losing millions say the disease has no health impacts

Date:10-18-2024

By Angelique Donnellan

Hundreds of jobs and tens of millions of dollars are at stake as a virus never before seen in Australia has infected tomato crops in South Australia.

It is also possible that supermarket prices for the fruit will rise as an industry leader with a large market share, Perfection Fresh, is heavily impacted.

The company's tomatoes have been missing from supermarket shelves nationwide for weeks because of the discovery of brown rugose virus, which will end up costing the business "tens of millions of dollars".

"I'm devastated," company CEO Michael Simonetta told 7.30.

"My heart breaks for the people.

"We've already let go of about 250 but there's unfortunately more to come as we rip out more plants."

It is the first time the tomato brown rugose virus has been confirmed in Australia.

While it poses no threat to human health, South Australia's primary industries department (PIRSA) wants to eradicate it because it potentially reduces the yield of a plant by 75 per cent.

Michael Simonetta says having to destroy thousands of tomatoes on his property has been devastating. (ABC News: Brant Cumming)

"Tomato prices will increase … we're 30 per cent of the Australian market," Mr Simonetta said.

"It will put more pressure on the cost-of-living crisis, and there's no reason for it because these tomatoes are perfectly safe, perfectly edible."

Mr Simonetta is speaking publicly for the first time about the quarantine restrictions placed on his business, which he said are an "overreach".

Forty-seven samples have come back positive to the virus but Mr Simonetta said thousands more "healthy" tomatoes and tomato plants had to be thrown out because his 43-hectare South Australian operation had been shut down indefinitely by PIRSA.

"All that great fruit being tipped into the back of those big dumpster bins, that's perfectly edible, great quality, it's just devastating," he said.

'Very transmissible'

A tomato infected with the virus. (Supplied: Diana Godinez: EPPO Database)

The tomato brown rugose virus was first detected in the Middle East in 2014 and has since been reported in Europe, China, Mexico and the USA. It also affects capsicums and chillies.

Mr Simonetta believed growers should be left to manage the virus.

"Nobody I speak to, whether it be in North America or Europe, has told me that their yield is reduced by 75 per cent," Mr Simonetta said.

"We support biosecurity measures but this virus is not — in our opinion and those more expert than I around the world — is not able to be eradicated. The UK claimed to have eradicated it twice. What does that mean?"

South Australia's Primary Industries Minister Clare Scriven said one other grower and a nursery in the state have had plants test positive and eradication was crucial to protect the broader industry.

South Australia's Primary Industries Minister Clare Scriven. (ABC News: Brant Cumming)

"We've not had it in Australia before, anywhere in Australia, so this is the first outbreak, and so it's in the interests of all growers across the country that if it can be eradicated, that it is," Ms Scriven told 7.30.

"I know there's a small number of growers who say we should just let it rip and go straight to management, but while we've still got the evidence showing it's only three businesses currently infected, then it's really important that we do everything we can for eradication."

Tasmania and New South Wales have put restrictions on the importation of tomatoes from the three affected properties. Queensland and Western Australia have banned all tomatoes from South Australia.

"It's considered a very transmissible disease. So it can be through soil, it can be windborne, it can be through machinery," Ms Scriven said.

"That's why it's so important to be able to minimise, to contain the virus, as far as possible. That's what we've done with the properties that are affected directly."

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