CHINESE apples are a step closer to coming into Australia after the local industry had its appeal based on serious pest concerns rejected.
Peak industry body Apple and Pear Australia Ltd said growers were "totally disillusioned" with the appeals process conducted by the Import Risk Assessment Appeals Panel and its findings on apple imports from China.
APAL was this week informed that four of its objections to the provisional final Import Risk Analysis for apple imports from China were disallowed and one was found to be outside the grounds for appeal.
"This is a real blow to the Australian apple and pear industry, APAL chairman Darral Ashton said.
APAL submitted one of just two appeals that were examined by the IRAAP and we believe our grounds for appeal were real and compelling," Mr Ashton said.
APAL's spokesperson on biosecurity issues and chairman of the industry's Fire Blight Task Force, John Corboy, said a major industry concern - that the IRA did not assess the distribution of a fruit fly, Drosophila suzukii, in China and what impact it would have if the pest established in Australia - was declared outside the grounds of appeal.
This insect has only just emerged in the US as a major pest impacting a range of fruits, and there is plenty of literature to indicate it infects apples," Mr Corboy said.
The IRAAP said that commenting on D suzukii would be commenting on the scientific merits of the IRA and that is outside the IRAAP s terms of reference, he said.
It also said that the import risk assessment can only be based on the known science at time of the IRA.
It seems to us that IRAAP is saying if a serious pest is missed in any risk assessment, this is not important and will be ignored," Mr Corboy said.
"Not only is this illogical, it makes a mockery of the whole appeals process. The government cannot stand by and allow this flawed process to continue unchanged.
If we don t know the distribution of D suzukii in China then we should be finding that information. It is absurd to think that a risk analysis is set to a fixed time period. Pest and diseases risks can change very quickly and we need to be able to respond appropriately to those changes.
APAL also claimed there was a failure to conduct an unrestricted risk assessment for Apricot Weevil, Yanyuan scale, Citropholis mealybug and sooty blotch and flyspeck from specific regions in China. These claims were disallowed by the IRRAP.
In layman s terms, IRAAP asked Biosecurity Australia if it had done an unrestricted risk assessment on these pests, and when told by BA that it had, IRAAP automatically overruled our appeal," Mr Corboy said.
"Again, IRAAP missed the point and ignored that our appeal was based on our firm belief this risk assessment was not adequately undertaken.
We are very disturbed that we have now run out of grounds for appeal with the rejection our claims and that when apples are imported from China, we face an unacceptable risk on new pests and disease entering the country.
It is not just the apple and pear industry that will lose out if a pest incursion occurs. The whole country will be worse off, particularly in the case of D suzukii, which can infest a whole range of fruits and would add costs across the board, Mr Corboy said.
