Qld: Emerald devastated by canker outbreak, says mayor

AAP General News (Australia)
04-06-2005
Qld: Emerald devastated by canker outbreak, says mayor

By Alex Murdoch

BRISBANE, April 6 AAP - Citrus canker may have only been found on two farms in Emerald,
but the mayor of the central Queensland town says the whole community's paying the price.

Mayor Peter Maguire said since the citrus industry's equivalent to foot and mouth disease
was discovered there last year, the town's growers had been forced to watch their livelihoods
go down the drain.

"The whole thing is lingering on and on and on and these guys have got no income, their
families are affected and all the people who work in the industry are out of a job," he
said today.

When the first outbreak of the bacterial disease, which blemishes the skin of citrus
fruits but is not harmful to humans, was discovered at Emerald's Evergreen Farms in July
last year a quarantine zone was quickly established around the town.

Almost overnight mass hysteria broke out and markets, both interstate and overseas, dried up.

Mr Maguire said today although it could be another two years before the canker situation
was resolved, Emerald growers were still expected to continue on as normal.

"They're expected to keep the trees alive, and prune them and do all that without any
income and it just doesn't work like that - they'll end up going broke," he said.

Mr Maguire said the really unfair aspect of the whole situation was that the growers
had done nothing wrong.

"It's not their fault ... but they're the ones who are suffering," he said.

Meanwhile, a national consultative meeting has decided to defer a decision to level
the second canker-infected citrus farm until after a 10-day surveillance of the property
was completed.

Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries spokesman Kirby Anderson said 135,000
trees had already been destroyed on the 2PH Selma property following four outbreaks of
canker.

He said the fate of the remaining 70,000 trees now relied on whether they remained canker free.

The entire crop of more than 200,000 trees was felled at Evergreen Farms late last year.

Mr Anderson said all Emerald properties, apart from Evergreen Farms and 2PH Selma,
had now been issued with property freedom certificates.

He said the initiative now hoped to provide access for these farms to restricted markets
both interstate and abroad.

But Mr Maguire said the Emerald growers would believe it when they saw it.

AAP am/sc/jt/de

KEYWORD: CANKER

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