Rising quarantine costs are the latest “unnecessary obstacle” the Australian Government is placing in the path of the country’s grape export industry, according to grower and Australian Table Grape Association vice president John Argiro.
The government will gradually increase the cost of registering a packing shed for quarantine inspection from A$500 to A$8,500 over the next two years.
Like over three-quarters of table grape growers in the Sunraysia region, Argiro is refusing to pay the inflated registration fee, instead choosing to send his fruit to transport companies with cool storage and inspection facilities available.
“Why would I pay A$8,500 to have my grapes inspected on site when I can have a transport company come in, take the grapes away and do it for a fraction of the cost?” Argiro said.
“If it was a matter of A$500 or A$1,000 I’d pay the registration fee.
“About 90 per cent of the growers up here (in Sunraysia) are the same, I can assure you.”
Growers in South Australia’s Riverland don’t have access to transport companies like those in Sunraysia, prompting fears some may have scale back export operations or close down.
Argiro said the government had an obligation to protect Australian fruit and produce exports, calling for all quarantine inspection costs to be waived.
“It’s another cost saving measure for the government, a fee they think they can push onto growers,” Argiro said.
“With exports, they should be doing everything they can to encourage it, not hinder the process.
“In my opinion all inspection costs should be dropped or footed by the government to encourage more exports.”
