The Victorian Government’s plan to terminate funding for fruit fly protection is expected to heavily impact the state’s 2,760 horticultural farms.

Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell told parliament on Thursday, September 12 that funding needed to continue for the Goulburn-Murray Valley Regional Fruit Fly Group.

Ms Lovell said the government had been transitioning since 2016 a shift away from a government-managed program toward one shared with growers and which growers would now need to manage entirely.

“There is now a serious risk that the important gains made in previous years could soon be completely lost,” Ms Lovell said.

“It would be a gross failure of responsibility for the government to abandon the horticulture industry, but it seems Labor could shift the burden entirely onto commercial growers.

“Fruit fly do [sic] not only breed in plantations, they breed in back yard fruit trees.”

Minister for Agriculture Ros Spence said the responsibility for controlling fruit fly will ‘remain’ with landholders and that the government would refocus resources to protecting industries from the threat of exotic fruit flies.

“These measures will enhance our ability to detect new incursions before they can establish themselves in production areas, while also providing evidence to support domestic and international trade,” Ms Spence said.

“Agriculture Victoria will maintain its commitment to supporting Queensland fruit fly management by facilitating trade and conducting research into better management approaches.”

An AgVic spokesperson said government had invested $14.28 million between 2021 and 2025 to provide community and regional grants to ‘empower’ industry and home gardeners to embed fruit fly management in their communities.

“The funding has allowed the program to improve community and landholder’s understanding of how to best manage fruit flies on their property, placing them in a good position to limit the impact of the pest moving forward,’ the spokesperson said.

Ms Spence said fruit fly activities in Victoria would now align with the National Fruit Fly Strategy and that government and industry were invited to contribute to the development of the NFFS.

Cobram and District Fruit Growers Association president Adrian Conti said increased costs for protecting from fruit fly was crippling fruit and vegetable growers.

Mr Conti called on the minister to review the government’s plans and continue to fund the ‘practical, broad-based’ actions of the program.

“People don’t understand, Queensland Fruit Fly is a native pest that flourishes in bushland and backyards,” Mr Conti said.

“Breeding habitat for Queensland fruit fly in Victoria is predominately situated in the 2.5 million Victorian residential backyard gardens and 8.8 million hectares of unmanaged public land owned by the Victorian Government.”

A spokesperson for Ms Lovell said the MP’s speech had been prompted by letters from growers and fruit growing lobby groups.

Ms Lovell had already asked the previous minister in parliament in March, 2020 to continue the program’s funding when it previously appeared the government would end the scheme.

“The program has enabled the group to identify fruit fly hotspots and activity across the region and ensure appropriate control measures and management strategies are considered to combat the pests,” Ms Lovell said.

Mr Conti said the funding had resulted in fruit fly populations decreasing by 60 per cent across the the Goulburn-Murray Valley region and 83 per cent in Cobram.

He said the program generated over 3,000 community volunteers and removed 120,000 unmanaged fruit trees from residential backyards, public lands and unmanaged orchards and attributed the success to the program creating awareness, education and engagement in communities and industry.

“It defies logic that the Victorian Government is terminating funding for this community-based program in June,” Mr Conti said.

“As a result of recent decreased funding, fruit fly numbers have increased 100 per cent.

“If the fruit fly management funding totally stops, we are likely to face infestation levels migrating into commercial crops from backyard gardens and public lands.

“A single fruit fly detection in any of our fruit and vegetable exports could devastate the horticultural industry.”

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Monday, 1st April 2024

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