Biosecurity New Zealand temporarily suspends all Australian imported tomatoes

Biosecurity New Zealand has temporarily suspended all Australian tomato imports, to be reviewed in 7 days, after the detection of tomato brown rugose fruit virus at 2 South Australian growing properties earlier this week. "We met this afternoon with our counterparts in Australia, where they provided an update on their work to respond to the detection of the tomato virus," says Biosecurity New Zealand deputy director-general Stuart Anderson. "Australia is taking steps to respond to the matter, including continuing to trace material. As this tracing work continues, and out of an abundance of caution, we are extending our restrictions by temporarily suspending imports of tomatoes from Australia. We will review this in 7 days. "This means temporary suspensions are now in place for tomato imports from all Australian states." Stuart Anderson says today’s decision builds on the urgent measures introduced by Biosecurity New Zealand earlier this week, which banned tomato imports from ...