US growers have the green light to export fresh apples to Australia. Here's what it means for the industry

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Australian growers have expressed concerns about biosecurity risks from diseases such as fire blight, and fear US government subsidies could mean overseas fruit is able to be sold at substantially cheaper prices.

abc.net.au/news/agriculture-green-light-apple-imports-us-pacific-northwest/101601074The United States has been given the green light to send fresh apples to Australia, after more than 20 years of lobbying.US apples have been given the green light to be imported into Australia after decades of lobbyingAustralia's domestic apple market is still oversupplied

Growers will be subject to strict biosecurity procedures set out by the department, and fruit will be imported from the states of Washington, Idaho and Oregon.The area also has at least 20 pests and disease that are not found in Australian orchards, including fire blight.Australia is one of the few countries in the world that does not have fire blight — and orchardists such as John Evans want to keep it that way.

Fred Pezzimenti is the operations manager at Melbourne wholesaler Simply Fresh Fruit, which focuses on local produce. Federal Assistant Minister for Trade and Manufacturing Tim Ayres said that's where the industry needs to focus its attention."There's a tiny percentage of overseas apples in the market, this won't make much of a difference.""We've got to get better at marketing our fruit and vegetable to the world."

 

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The Labor Gov should immediately stop the imports as Aussie jobs will go for cheap US imports. Many will buy due to cost living increases.

Why! What’s wrong with our Apples.

Don’t we have enough Australian apples?

Apples are only good at a certain time of year and even then your taking your chances . Generally stick to Jazz apples , a hybrid , but always good and only available a few months of the year .

If we produce more then we need why import more and hurt Australian farms?

Fresh Apples to Australia. Dont believe that. Has to be fake news.

cOw FarTs aRe cAuSinG cLimAte cHaNgE

Toxic sprays and carcinogens…? Can someone verify exactly how they are treated and with what? The US is one of the biggest chemical users on the planet, personally I’d be giving them a miss - buy Australian…

Why import foods that are grown and in plentiful supply in Australia. Import something we don't grow or have.

Beef and fruit in the US quality is improved I ate pork belly today so delicious it's cheap

What happened to the Apple Isle?

What a load of hog wash this should not be aloud

Don’t buy the yank crap. Plenty of home grown fruit.

ABC must be loving this as will destroy more of those much hated enemy of the ABC those horrible Australian farmers

B52 bombers, and now apples. Australia could export cane toads and Liberal politicians to the US.

Woohoo fire blight

Force supermarkets to clearly label US apples with country of origin US flag stickers cut in the shape of a B52 bomber.

Australia will do as it is told.

We're not buying.

Will it come supersized?

It's a disgrace. We bring in their war birds now fruit while our farmers leave them to rot. We don't need their war mongering or their apples. Why do we pander to their every whim?😢😱

This is so wrong!

Who wants to eat apples covered in antibiotic?

Hopefully will be clearly labelled products of the US so we can avoid them

Is this a consequence of the unbalanced trade deal the LNP government signed with the US?

Terrible news, now I have to check the provenance of apples as well as citrus. USA fruit, no way!

Are they GMO free?

ElaineM11584892 Disappointing I won’t be buy any US apples.

Fresh….plus how many weeks in the container on a ship, right. If they are like the “fresh” oranges from California Woolies sell they’ll look awful and taste worse.

While our farmers are ploughing fruit back into the ground Good ol Albo is allowing fruit to come in from the US, you're nothing but a fraud

No chance they’ll make it to my fruit bowl.

So the growers in Batlow and the like who rebuilt business after 2019 bushfires are getting reamed in the taint by this at a guess.

What sort of ineptitude is this? When we know that bringing in imports undermines our own producers. Surely we should not replicate what happened to the garment and manufacturing sectors by similarly starting the slow and inexorable destruction of our agri-businesses too?

Australian farmers need some competition.

Everyone's going on about emissions and the Government still allows fresh produce we grow here anyway to be transported from the other side of the world. Even if there's a brief gap in local supply at certain times of the year, eat something else local in season, pathetic.

Why on all things holy would australia import apples from anywhere. What a stupid import. Would never buy anything but Australia.

Go to your local farmers markets and buy Australian. Send a message to the big shopping chains

Dillon, C. M. and Gill, J. W. (1997). “Fire blight: prospects for control by genetic engineering.” Agricultural Science 10(4): 36-38

ecobard That's a long way for apples to travel.... We're closer, much closer Australia, please take note, just accross the Indian Ocean....

Sorry. I’ll only buy Australian labelled fruit and veg, and if it doesn’t have an Aussie label, I won’t be buying it. Miles travelled isn’t important to the US growers, and we don’t know what pesticides they use, or what contaminated soil they grow it in.

Means for the customer that it will take months to land on the shelves after being picked at the farm

🇺🇸 apples fuckem I ain’t buying 🇺🇸

What You want to destroy our local fresh producers?

Shipping in apples from the US, so much for emission reductions.

Are they GMO apples ? Given American food standards/qualities I wouldnt touch anything American.

Where is the Australian government support of Local business in Australia if they allow this to happen as it’s financial & Quality & smallbusinesses that are at risk with this poor decision wapol auspol wanews BeaumontSimon ABCPolitics wamnnews DAFFgov FoodNetwork

Will they be delivered to Australia by B-52 bombers or its comes as a bonus with B-52?

Just what we need - Apples filled with corn syrup.

If Tasmanian apples are so wonderful, why are the ones in the supermarket so decidedly average? Plus hugely expensive.

Why

Buy Australian

willnotbuy

Well, let's boycott them, don't buy them, only the Aussie ones, people power, let them rot.

No no no

Doesn't mean we have to buy them ... boycott sends a message ...

Here's a suggestion. Instead of growing so much cotton and wasting so much water on it, maybe we can grow our own apples instead?

Lots of fuss when China puts tariffs on AUS wine to protect local producers then AUS imports subsidised produce from US screwing Aus farmers. Where is our food security policy?

If US growers can put apples in my supermarket for less than the $5 a kilo you're trying to charge now - because there's low supply or high costs or something, something, ad infinitum - I'll buy them. I'm done being bullshitted by Australian growers.

Even if we leave all biosecurity and economical concerns aside for a moment - why the hell do we need to fly fucking apples from the US to Oz? As if we weren't able to grow any? FF are too cheap!

Fresh? Fresh off the boat? C'mon....

What is the quid pro quo? Can Australia now have free export access to America for our produce? Or is this another one way street from the US? THEY protect their primary production, whilst the Australian Government sells out ours? AlboMP

Honestly i never buy imported fruit what for .

Madness

Only If people realised how much Australia spends on imported French water (Evian),

👆The Australian Government, biosecurity, has FAILED time, and again, to stop import of disease, invasive species. Remember when they PROMISED our seafood would be safe from imported produce, THEN gave us white spot disease to decimate shellfish industries! Or maybe fire ants?

Wtf. We have plenty of apples here.

Shit apples that rot in a few days and higher risk of imported pests and diseases

Oh yay, so more shitty US garbage getting shipped over instead our own. Either it's from the region or it doesn't go in the cupboard

we just cave in to a bully to appease Washington

Are they going to be labeled like seafood so we can have the choice to buy or not ?

Why ?

Gave away our industry and now they want to do it to our agriculture too. Criminal, but typical.

That Australian are gonna get as fat as Americans with steroids filled produce !

cow farts are bad for the environment

Why would I buy apples from the US when I can buy apples grown here in Australia? Especially when considering the apples in the US are grown in areas that have pests that we don't have in Australia

FMD can't we produce anything here anymore

The Albanese government is going all-out on importing problems to Australia, eh? First the diseased ideology of ISIS, now the diseased apples.

Refuse to buy imported US apples. Let them rot on the shelves.

I'll first have to compare apples with apples.

Pity the US only has about 20 days' worth of diesel left... Good luck peoples.

Finally, those British apples that Liz truss promised are on their way.

🤢🤢

That apples here in Australia won't be $9pkg?

she'll be apples

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