Industry experts have called for Australian citrus growers to embrace new technologies and varieties, as well as warning of the need to be mindful of biosecurity threats, at the annual Citrus Australia National Conference held in Mildura this week.

It was also announced at the conference that Australia’s national science body, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), had awarded Sydney-based fresh produce marketer Perfection Fresh Australia the exclusive rights to commercialise two new seedless mandarin varieties bred by the CSIRO.

CSIRO plant breeder Dr Steven Sykes said Merbeingold 2336 and Merbeingold 2350 were the first two seedless mandarins to be deliberately bred in Australia and were the result of more than 20 years of research and development.

New varieties such as these were the focus of day one of the conference. West Australian Senator Glenn Sterle officially opened the event by pledging government support to fund innovation in rural Australia.

Visiting US horticulturist Dr Etienne Rabe further stressed the importance of research and development in his keynote address. “There’s a dearth of technical capacity coming through in terms of the people to service the citrus grower,” he said.

Water availability and rising labour costs are, according to Dr Rabe, two of Australian citrus growers’ biggest concerns in trying to stay competitive in international markets.

“Australian labour costs are the highest in the world,” Dr Rabe said. “So, with your labour and your water problems, you will have no other choice but to avail yourself of the newest cultural technologies and these new varieties.”

Day two of the conference focused on specific biosecurity threats facing the Australian citrus industry. Queensland grower Nick Ulcoq offered a disturbing account of the 2004 citrus canker outbreak in Emerald, which took five years and A$18m to eradicate, destroying many livelihoods in the process.

Citrus Australia technical advisor Pat Barkley then took the podium and indentified Huanglongbing (HLB), or citrus greening disease, as a potential threat to the Australian citrus industry. Already crippling the Florida citrus industry, and a great worry to Californian growers, Mrs Barkley pointed to Australia’s position close to countries where HLB has been detected as a cause for concern.

“The vulnerability resides in our proximity to countries to that have Huanglongbing and the Asian citrus psyllid. These are East Timor, Indonesia and now it’s been found in the north of Papua New Guinea,” Ms Barkley said.

She also claimed it had been proven that cyclones were capable of transporting the HLB vector across vast distances.

The conference then heralded the launch of a new Orchard Biosecurity Manual, produced by Plant Health Australia in conjunction with Citrus Australia, which is designed to boost grower awareness of potential threats and provide a plan of action should any be detected.

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