Australia: The billion-dollar risk to Queensland's tomatoes

President of the Bowen Gumlu Growers Association, Carl Walker, said they want to maintain strict rules keeping the threat at bay. Picture by Melanie Groves. With a farm gate value of around one billion dollars, North Queensland's vegetable growing industry is anxiously watching a biosecurity risk to the south, pushing to maintain strong border rules in an attempt to keep it out. All articles from our website & app The digital version of This Week's Paper Breaking news alerts direct to your inbox All articles from the other agricultural news sites in your area It has been several months since the tomato brown rugrose fruit virus, an exotic plant disease that affects tomatoes, capsicums and chillies, was first detected in South Australia. The virus, also known as ToBRFV, can reduce marketable yield by 75 per cent, and is highly contagious, transmittable through infected seeds and plants, by touch or plant to plant contact and even through irrigation water. While the virus has so far ...