California Table Grape Commission president Kathleen Nave has hit back at claims US imports pose a biosecurity risk to the Western Australian grape industry.
Nave said Australia has some of the most stringent quarantine regulations in the world, with both federal and state authorities undertaking thorough research prior to allowing Californian grapes to enter Western Australia for the first time in July.
“Australia has the toughest protocol for shipping of anywhere in the world,” Nave told the ABC.
“It’s the hardest market into which we ship out of California. You (Australia) have a lot of first-rate scientists; they do not make it easy.”
The Department of Agriculture and Food for Western Australia (DAFWA) announced it had amend its import conditions for Californian grapes in late July, granting the industry market access after a decade of campaigning.
The ruling was met with stern opposition from Western Australian growers, who have raised concerns about the spread of the fungal disease Pathogen Phomopis Viticola as a result of the imports.
Nave said the Calfiornian industry has been exporting to other Australian states for over a decade, without a breach of quarantine regulations.
“I am absolutely confident that there is no risk of Phomopsis (Viticola) coming into Western Australia or any other market in the world on fresh-picked table grapes,” Nave said.
Nave suggested Californian imports would strengthen the Western Australian industry in the long term.
“When California first started being on the receiving end of imports, there were a lot of growers who were not happy about that,” Nave said.
“This was in the late 1980s when we first started getting imports. But the truth of the matter is that it is beneficial for retailers and consumers to have a year-round supply of grapes.”
