GOVERNMENTS are turning a blind eye to Australia's horticultural crisis, says DAVID MINNIS

Horticulture remains the second largest agricultural industry in Australia, based on farm-gate value, and one in seven rural jobs in Australia is associated with the sector.

Given these facts, you might have thought politicians would be a little more interested in horticulture and how well it is travelling.

As an exporter of fresh fruit and vegetables, I can assure you growers and traders are doing it very tough.

You only have to travel to the Riverland and Sunraysia and see the neglected vines, or the large number of citrus and stonefruit trees removed because the price of water is beyond what growers can justify or afford.

There are simply not enough markets to sell to, which attests that this industry desperately needs government support.

In 2005 mainland stonefruit growers lost access to Taiwan, when that country included Queensland fruit fly on its prohibited pest list.

Three years later we are still trying to regain entry.

Taiwan was the largest market for Australian stonefruit at the time that we lost access, so it is not surprising that in 2007-08 exports have declined more than 50 per cent.

Exporters believe the loss of the Taiwan market for stonefruit, cherries, apples, pears and nashi has cost the Australian horticultural industry $60 million in lost export earnings so far.

The loss of export markets also means domestic market prices have collapsed.

I currently cannot export cherries, peaches, plums, nectarines and apricots to Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, the US, the Philippines and New Zealand, because Australia does not have access to these markets.

It is little wonder exports are not growing.

The only new market federal officials have negotiated access to in the past 10 years for stonefruit grown in areas where fruit fly may occur is Canada.

While the US has allowed access to cherries from mainland Australia, the protocol is unworkable, unless the fruit is obtained from fruit fly-free areas the US recognises.

Similarly, we have retained access in India for cherries and stonefruit, but little is shipped unless it is obtained from fruit fly-free areas, because the protocol negotiated is so difficult.

In 2005 Japan and Korea were banned from Taiwan, when peach moth was found in their pome fruit.

The ban lasted two months, then trade resumed.

In 2006 codling moth was found in US apples sent to Taiwan. If it is found three times there, exports are banned.

This insect was found in two separate consignments and a temporary halt was imposed on the trade for two to three months, then trade resumed.

Fruit fly has never been found in Australian fruit exported to Taiwan, yet a change in the regulations has resulted in a continuing ban.

What did we do wrong?

The Victorian table grape industry achieved access to the lucrative US market in 1989, but we have never shipped a box because the protocol, which requires fumigation plus cool storage, is so damaging to the fruit that exporters can't risk shipping.

Compare that to what happened to the US when its grape exporters gained access to our market. Initially we required the US to fumigate with methyl bromide against glassy winged sharpshooter, a carrier of Pierce's disease.

After three years of trading the US Department of Agriculture asked that since the insect had not been found in the pathway, that requirement be removed - and it was.

In international trade I know of no precedent where such a critical requirement was dropped so quickly, particularly given the same requirement for Australian grapes has been maintained for 19 years and nothing has been shipped.

A similar situation occurs with US cherries imported to Australia - they can be fumigated against cherry fruit fly at temperatures as low as 6C, yet the new protocol for our mainland cherries entering the US requires us to fumigate at 21.1C. This is so damaging to the fruit that exporters won't ship.

When the stonefruit industry lost access to Taiwan, the industry approached the office of the Victorian Agriculture Minister, but was told it was a federal matter.

An industry delegation of growers and exporters then approached the then federal Agriculture Minister, Peter McGauran, and the Federal Government provided emergency funding for research to regain access to Taiwan.

To date $350,000 has been spent, including the cost of the current trials at the NSW Department of Primary Industries Gosford research centre. Unfortunately the NSW Government has now earmarked Gosford for closure in the latest budget cuts, despite it being of critical importance to the horticultural industry.

Australian exporters' lack of access to world markets, and the slow progress of negotiation, are holding back horticulture. The only way this will improve is by adequately resourcing market-access research and development.

Industry cannot do it alone and governments need to be more proactive.

If growers don't export, horticulture will decline, as the domestic market is not big enough to support all of the current industry.

These issues, along with the performance and cost of the Government's export inspection service, were what exporters wanted to raise with Federal Agriculture Minister Tony Burke at our only meeting in his first 12 months in office.

Unfortunately this was cut to 20 minutes, as the Minister had to attend Caucus.

Just as unsatisfactory, given the number of free trade agreements under negotiation, have been the many attempts to arrange a meeting with Federal Trade Minister Simon Crean.

Since 2001-02, Australian fresh fruit and vegetable exports have declined by $242 million, or more than 31 per cent.

Isn't it about time the horticultural industry got a little more government attention?

 

*This news is a quote from the「WeeklyTimesNow」.