Pineapple growers in the northern Australian state of Queensland are worried that allowing Malaysian imports of the fruit into the country would expose the industry to disease threats.
Australian biosecurity bodies are currently undertaking an import risk analysis on Malaysian pineapples, the ABC reported.
"There exists some diseases in the Malaysian growing environment of pineapples that we believe don't currently exist in the Australian industry and therefore we believe there's significant risk attached to importing pineapples from these districts," said Mark Pine of grower-packer Tropical Pines. "The introduction of these diseases can be quite devastating."
Mr Boyd said the industry would be happy to accept any produce that had been appropriately treated for all disease threats, but added that treatment couldn't eliminate all risks.
"We will respond to the import risk assessment analysis that will be done using science, which hopefully will show that even though product may be treated that there is still a significant risk to our industry that this disease can come with the fruit even after it is treated."
