Industry representatives meet to develop set of recommendations for state jurisdictions on the management of PMTV
A working group, convened by Ausveg, has met to discuss the trade and market access challenges being faced by Australia’s potato industry due to imposed movement restrictions.
Restrictions are currently in place in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia on the movement of unprocessed potatoes and related items from Tasmania following the detection of potato mop-top virus (PMTV) earlier this year.
The group, comprising seed, ware and processing potato sector representation from across the country, as well as state government and Smart (sub committee for market access, risk and trade) representatives, held their first two meetings online on 9 and 15 December, where they developed a set of recommendations for state jurisdictions on the management of PMTV in seed.
These included basing area freedom on scale and stage of detection, establishing a national approach, enabling risk-based trade, developing agreed national protocols on testing, and establishing a systems approach to movement.
According to Ausveg, the meetings were an outcome of an earlier industry-government PMTV meeting held in Melbourne on 18 November 2025. The group will continue to meet regularly as it works towards its goals.
Once agreement has been reached by the working group (and wider group), Ausveg said it will present a paper to the Plant Health Committee (PHC) on behalf of the industry.
