{"id":892541,"date":"2026-09-15T05:50:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T05:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/892541\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T05:50:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T05:50:25","slug":"australian-apple-growers-fear-economic-and-biosecurity-wipeout-as-united-states-eyes-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/892541\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian apple growers fear economic and biosecurity wipeout as United States eyes market"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia’s apple industry has held urgent talks in Canberra as the United States edges closer to exporting its fruit to Australia.<\/p>\n

Following decades of lobbying, American growers were given the green light<\/a> by Australia in 2022 to send their apples across the Pacific.<\/p>\n

Before shipments begin, the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) needs to publish import conditions on its biosecurity website.<\/p>\n

That has not happened yet.<\/p>\n

But according to industry group Apple and Pear Australia Limited (APAL), it is getting closer.<\/p>\n

“The US government has just recently \u2026 brought it back to the table to discuss with the federal government,” APAL general manager Jeremy Griffith said.<\/p>\n

“So that’s got a lot of growers in this country very, very concerned.”<\/p>\n

\"Red<\/p>\n

The Australian apple industry is valued at about $650 million a year. (ABC Rural: Annie Brown)<\/p>\n

Apple giant<\/p>\n

The United States is the second-largest apple-growing country in the world behind China, with the bulk of production in the Pacific Northwest, including Washington.<\/p>\n

“They export a lot of them,” Mr Griffith said.<\/p>\n

“Our understanding is they have a very large surplus of apples in America at the moment, and they’re looking for a home to send them to.”<\/p>\n

Mr Griffith said the imports would have “a significant impact upon the very viability of all our orchards”.<\/p>\n

“Because we’re a very good free-trading country, we’re not allowed to consider the economic implications of this,” Mr Griffith said.<\/p>\n

“We can only look at biosecurity issues.”<\/p>\n

At the moment, nearly all apples consumed in Australia are grown locally, with less than 1 per cent imported from China and New Zealand.<\/p>\n

“Having the US to come in would [be] a very direct threat, and it goes to the heart of our own food security,” Mr Griffith said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ninety-nine per cent of apples consumed in Australia are locally grown. (ABC Rural: Justine Longmore)<\/p>\n

A DAFF spokesperson confirmed the department was in “ongoing discussions with the US” about apple imports.<\/p>\n

But the spokesperson did not say how long that process was likely to take.<\/p>\n

“[DAFF] has not finalised the procedures the US will use to meet the recommended risk management measures,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

“The department has engaged regularly with Australia’s apple industry, through Apple and Pear Australia Ltd (APAL), on the import risk analysis for fresh apple fruit from Pacific Northwest USA.”<\/p>\n

Biosecurity nerves<\/p>\n

The federal government’s risk analysis report identified a host of biosecurity concerns.<\/p>\n

Fire blight, a destructive bacterial disease, was of most concern to growers, but there were multiple other exotic diseases that also have them worried.<\/p>\n

“Top of the list is fire blight, [but] you’ve got apple maggots, you’ve got leaf curling midges, you’ve got canker, lots of different types of rots and rusts,” Mr Griffith said.<\/p>\n

His biggest fear was that Australia’s biosecurity system would not be strong enough to keep them out, citing the varroa mite incursion as an example.<\/p>\n

“That’s already having a profound impact upon all our bee colonies,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jeremy Griffith met with agriculture department officials for urgent talks in Canberra last week. (ABC Rural: Justine Longmore)<\/p>\n

APAL rushed to Canberra last week to meet with DAFF officials.<\/p>\n

“They’re very, very conscious of the biosecurity risk,” Mr Griffith said.<\/p>\n

“We think there’s enough red flags out there for the government to respond appropriately to ensure that proper protections are in place.”<\/p>\n

Fire blight would be ‘catastrophic’<\/p>\n

Half of Australia’s apples are grown in Victoria’s Goulburn and Murray Valleys.<\/p>\n

The region sits within the federal seat of Nicholls, held by Nationals member and opposition agriculture spokesperson Sam Birrell.<\/p>\n

“I’m very concerned because of the biosecurity risk,” said Mr Birrell, who has a background in agricultural science and also worked in the fruit industry.<\/p>\n

“The USA has fire blight, Australia does not, and we cannot allow fire blight to come in.”<\/p>\n

“It would be catastrophic for the apple and pear industry, an industry which is critical to Australia.”\"A<\/p>\n

Sam Birrell says fire blight would be devastating for the Australian apple and pear industry. (Supplied: Sam Birrell)<\/p>\n

Australia allows apple imports from New Zealand, where fire blight has been present for more than a century.<\/p>\n

But Mr Birrell said the “stringent biosecurity regulations” in place for the nation’s trans-Tasman neighbour have meant “we haven’t seen a lot of New Zealand apples here”.<\/p>\n

“Biosecurity needs to be number one,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I’ve seen what fire blight has done to apple orchards in the United States and I’ve seen what they have to do to deal with it.”<\/p>\n

\"Apples<\/p>\n

Apples ready for processing at Montague Fresh, Victoria. (ABC News: Tim Lee)<\/p>\n

GM apples<\/p>\n

Five varieties of genetically modified (GM) apples are sold in the United States, but there are no GM varieties in Australia.<\/p>\n

Mr Birrell said the move towards GM in the US shows what happens when diseases cause widespread problems.<\/p>\n

“[It] explains what can happen when a new disease as catastrophic as fire blight gets into Australia,” Mr Birrell said.<\/p>\n

“We don’t want to go down that path.”<\/p>\n

The ABC also contacted Agriculture Minister Julie Collins for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia’s apple industry has held urgent talks in Canberra as the United States edges closer to exporting its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[17250,64,63,9326,75,462015,18466,462014,2185,128,462013],"class_list":["post-892541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-apples","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-biosecurity","tag-environment","tag-fire-blight","tag-imports","tag-pests-and-diseases","tag-rural","tag-science","tag-us-apples"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=892541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}