Aussie growers air doubts over quarantine of bananas from RP

CANBERRA (Xinhua) - The Australian banana industry has welcomed the latest Senate report on banana imports from the Philippines, but questioned the veracity of potential risk management protocols.

A federal Senate committee yesterday called for more details about how disease risk would be managed.

The issue has been under consideration since 2000. The Australian government’s Biosecurity Australia (BA) came out with a report in 2004 based on an Import Risk Analysis (IRA) that recommended imports be allowed.

In March 2009, BA announced a stringent quarantine policy for the importation of bananas from the Philippines.

However, Friday’s report showed the federal Senate’s regional affairs committee expressed doubts over the quarantine measures because “the actual risk management measures that will be applied will be proposed by the Philippines.”

The committee said that even though Australian stakeholders may not agree with a risk management procedure, the Philippine authority would still be free to implement it without reference to the Australian industry.

The Australian domestic industry, based largely in Queensland, believes the risk of diseases endemic to the Philippines, such as moko, black sigatoka and freckle, has the potential to devastate their crops.