1 Spring Street
GPO Box 4440 Melbourne
Victoria 3001 Australia
Telephone:(03) 9658 4000
Facsimile: (03) 9658 4400
ABN 42 579 412 233
DX 210404
2 September 2008
Ref: RP/03/0222
Dr Colin Grant
Chief Executive Plant Biosecurity
Biosecurity Australia
Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry -Australia
GPO Box 858
CANBERRA ACT 2602
Dear Dr Grant
DPI Response to the issues paper for the import risk analysis for fresh apples from the Pacific Northwest of the USA
Thank you for your memorandum of 8 July 2008, notifying the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) of the release of the Issues Paper for the Import Risk Analysis for fresh Apples from the Pacific Northwest of the USA for comment.
Specialists within the DPI have examined the Issues Paper and have made the following comments:
- DPI notes the extensive pest and disease list for the Pacific Northwest on pp 16-33. This includes a number of pests and diseases exotic to Australia such as the key bacterial pathogen Erwinia amylovora, the cause of fireblight; Neonectria galligena (=Nectria galligena) the fungal pathogen causing European canker; and Rhagoletis pomonella (apple maggot) an important fruit fly pest which requires internal quarantine measures in Washington State.
- DPI also notes some issues with the background section on the US apple industry on p 9 e.g. orchard tree numbers, taken from a Washington SU publication, have been incorrectly converted to trees per hectare, resulting in significant underestimates — 40 trees per hectare should be around 300 trees per hectare, 240 to 400 trees per hectare should be around 1500-2500 trees/hectare.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments on the Issues Paper and I look forward to being notified of the progress of this IRA.
Yours sincerely
[Signed]
HUGH MILLAR
Acting Executive Director Biosecurity Victoria
For more information call our Customer Service Centre on 136 186 or visit our website at www.dpi.vic.gov.au
Disclaimer: The department received this submission in hardcopy only, which has been converted into an accessible format to meet Australian Government accessibility requirements. While due care was taken to ensure the information was reproduced accurately, the PDF should be considered the original document for official purposes.