ANGELIQUE DONNELLAN, REPORTER: These tomatoes should be headed to supermarket shelves nationwide, instead they’re on their way to the rubbish tip.
My heart breaks for the people that we've got to let go. We've already let go of about 250 but there's, unfortunately, more to come. ANGELIQUE DONNELLAN: The virus was first detected in the Middle East in 2014 and has since been reported in Europe, China, Mexico and the USA. It also affects capsicums and chillis.
CLARE SCRIVEN: So, look, they've taken a real risk averse approach and I guess that's understandable. ANGELIQUE DONNELLAN: Last financial year the federal Agriculture Department tested about 40 per cent of imported tomato seed lines. ANGELIQUE DONNELLAN: Not far from Perfection Fresh is this tomato farm which has also been affected by the virus.HARRY KAPIRIS: We had a couple of positive results in two houses out of probably, probably about 20 or 25 houses. We made the decision as a family to scrap the season thus far and try and start again.
So, tomato brown rugose virus has been obviously a risk, but not in that very top list of priorities in terms of the likelihood and the impact.