The repercussions of the tomato-potato psyllid outbreak are taking shape in the state of Western Australia, with seed potato growers starting to feed hundreds of tons of perfectly good produce to their cattle.
With exports of Western Australia potatoes and tomatoes still ground to a halt, and a fully supplied local market, seed potato producers have no home for their produce. It has forced many of the state’s growers, such as Albany’s Trevor Barker, to dump their product. Barker has already fed 55 tons of his crop to cattle.
“If the border doesn’t open, we’ll 330 tons of potatoes would have earned Barker about $150,000.
Future still unclear for industry
Perhaps the biggest worry for the industry in Australia at the moment is whether to plant for next year.
Pemberton seed potato grower Alan Parker says farmers needed to know what the protocol would be going forward, so they could decide whether it is viable to continue to grow for interstate markets.
“There are going to be extra costs as far as monitoring goes, surveying the crop with [the department] and further sprays,” he says. “We need to be aware of it so we can put a [budget] structure around it so we have an understanding of what the costs are up front, rather stumbling around in November and December saying, ‘It’s too expensive, we can’t do it.’”
It is a question Potato Growers Association president Simon Moltoni has been desperately trying to get answers to. But Moltoni says after regularly meeting with other state representatives, as well as the Department of Agriculture and Food, he does not believe there will be an official protocol any time soon.
“Nobody can agree on what a proper test is for the Lso bacterium, that’s the problem,” he says.
Zebra chip disease of the potato is caused by the bacterium Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum (Lso), which is vectored by the tomato-potato psyllid. So far it has not been detected in Western Australia.
“What I’m finding is that things are moving at a different pace,” says Moltoni. “On the ground, out there in the region, everything is moving very quickly. They’re planting and harvesting every day, but then you’ve got the administration above that dealing with it. That’s not moving quite so fast.
“Then above that, you’ve got the science, and the science is conflicted and moves very slowly. [It’s] basically the key to moving everything forward.”
Potato market takes a hit
Moltoni says the consequences have also begun to extend further, into the fresh potato industry.
“We’ve seen the price fall considerably in the last few weeks,” he says. “Some of that’s due to normal seasonal conditions where the supply has increased, but part of that fall in price is certainly due to some of the seed potatoes—rightly so—being sold into the local market.”
Moltoni says waste of fresh potatoes could more than double this year, from 10 to 15 percent up to 50 percent.
The Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia is working with states and territories to enforce a 12-month management plan, to be delivered June 1.
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation