Australian apple growers are continuing their fight against Chinese apple imports, and are particularly concerned about the white winged suzuki fly.
Apple and Pear Australia Limited (APAL) is appealing Biosecurity Australia's (BA) recommendation to allow Chinese apple imports, and are worried the import risk analysis on Chinese apples didn't consider the pest, even though European food safety bodies acknowledge it is present there.
APAL's biosecurity spokesperson John Corboy said the white winged suzuki fly had the potential to devastate the Australian apple industry.
"It does lay its eggs in fruit that is maturing; in other words, it doesn't go for fruit that's on the ground," he told the ABC.
"As those eggs hatch they ruin the fruit, obviously, and create a whole heap of new maggots, and off we go in the cycle again. It's got the potential to be a very serious pest."
According to Mr Corboy, APAL is not opposed to the competition allowing Chinese apple imports would bring, and are only concerned with keeping Australian orchards disease free.
"Very simply, we have a country that's relatively free of pests and diseases and we should make no apologies in wanting to keep it that way," he said.
"We should be able to compete with them, but we should not have to put up with their pests and diseases."
