Fruit and vegetables grown in northern Namibia have been infected by an invasive fruit fly that is set to cause exporters to lose millions of dollars.
After discovering the fly, Bactrocera invadens, South Africa closed its borders to a list of agricultural products, including watermelons, butternut squashes, mangoes and tomatoes, according to website African Agriculture.
A 600-hectare producer at Ruacana in the Omusati Region, the Etunda Irrigation Scheme, has been heavily affected by the closure of trade with South Africa and reports losses in excess of N$4 million (£262,000), said general manager Vilho Nghipondoka. Etunda exports 80 per cent of its produce to South Africa.
Namibian Food (Namfo), another large exporter of agricultural produce based at Tsumeb, exported most of its produce to South Africa before the borders closed. However, the government will need to step up to the plate to avoid a similar crisis next year, warned manager Hannes Arangies.
“The borders will stay closed until we put in a delimiting survey, showing that there is a low pest prevalence,” he said. “The South Africans won’t open up the border until they have the numbers on the table, because this is a very aggressive fruit fly, and can become a large-scale problem. The government must start with this survey.”
Both Nghipondoka and Arangies emphasised that produce infected by the Bactrocera invadens is safe for human consumption. However, because fruit flies are classified as “quarantine organisms”, which means that no fruit containing larvae may be exported on threat of rejection and total destruction of the shipment, the produce cannot be exported.
Bactrocera invadens originates from Asia and was first discovered in Africa in 2003 in Kenya.
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