Consumers can give local tomato growers a special Christmas present by buying heaps of locally grown tomatoes from their local fruit and vegetable shop this season.
This is the message from local Member of Parliament Tony Piccolo and Minister for Primary Industries Clare Scriven, given the challenges currently faced by SA tomato growers. Three South Australian businesses have been affected by the exotic Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit virus, the first time it has been detected in Australia.
Although the rest of local industry remains free of the virus, a bumper crop and some interstate restrictions have resulted in an oversupply in SA.
The virus poses no risk to human health and is not a food safety risk. Restrictions that have been put in place are to protect other growers from economic losses and loss of market access.
Tony Piccolo is urging local consumers to visit their local fruit and vegetable store and buy fresh locally grown tomatoes.
“Sadly, the publicity around the virus has wrongly raised concerns in the community that the tomato fruit is not safe to eat,” said Mr Piccolo.
“This is just not the case. The science is very clear that the virus has no impact on the quality or safety of eating the fruit.
“This is why we should be buying as many tomatoes as possible to help reduce any negative impacts on growers and their families.”
Many of the tomato farms are run by local families who rely on every season’s crop to help fund the next seasonal planting.
Mr Piccolo said with a great number of tomatoes on the market, now is the time to buy as consumers will have a lot of choice and great prices.
“The bumper crop means tomatoes are in plentiful supply, which bodes particularly well for people of European background who make tomato sauce or passata at this time of the year.
“The passata-making tradition still runs in the Piccolo family.”
Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Clare Scriven, also urged people to support local growers.
“We are currently at the peak of the tomato growing season and, as a result, there is an abundance of tomatoes - truss tomatoes in particular - on South Australian market shelves.
I encourage consumers to support our local growers by including fresh tomatoes as a staple ingredient for as many dishes as possible over the coming summer months.”
The past couple of months have been extraordinarily difficult for the tomato industry, with some interstate trading restrictions hitting growers particularly hard.
“We have done everything we can to assist growers in meeting the certification requirements to access WA and Queensland markets as quickly as possible, including opening a dedicated lab here in Adelaide, Minister Scriven said.
“We have also successfully contained the virus to not spread further across the country so far, since the virus was first detected in August, and are well on our way towards achieving eradication of this virus. If the virus had spread across the state and country, it would have devastating consequences on all tomato, capsicum and chilli growers every single year.
“I would like to thank all involved for their tremendous efforts in this response.”
In a separate development the Department of Primary Industries has established a reference group comprising of local growers and industry representatives, to add to the regular meetings that PIRSA had held to update growers, both in person and online.
Minister Scriven said the Growers Reference Group will be an important forum for additional communication and collaboration between the SA Government through PIRSA, industry representatives and growers regarding the ToBRFV eradication response.
“At my various meetings with growers, including the roundtable with growers, PIRSA staff and industry representatives convened by Tony Piccolo MP, it became clear that a reference group would be a valuable addition to the engagement on this issue.
“But the key message this Christmas is ‘support our local growers by buying fantastic local tomatoes’.