A meeting between government officials and members of the country's citrus industry has taken place in Melbourne this week in a bid to formulate a contingency plan covering a possible outbreak of Huanglongbing, otherwise known as citrus greening disease, according to ABC News.
The disease, which is fatal to citrus trees and heavily affects the quality of the fruit that it produces, already affects a number of citrus-growing nations across the world.
Australia could be hit in a number of potential ways, according to Andrew Greene, executive director of the South Australia Citrus Board.
'There are lots of potential avenues, I guess the main threat is really from domestics travel, people arriving from Asia into the various cities,' he said. 'At the moment, the vector does move by, like, hurricanes or cyclones or things like that. There are a number of routes that are being considered as part of the contingency plan.'
Rodney Turner, general manager of Plant Health Australia, said that the disease can be most dangerous when both the pathogen and the vector (the disease carrier) appear together.
'There is a report from the Florida Board of Citrus which indicates that they believe with the vector and the pathogen together, their industry could be decimated in the next 5-10 years,' he warned.
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