Recall won’t push mangoes off table
FARM fresh mangoes will not be in short supply this festive season despite a recall of more than 120,000 mangoes shipped to South Australia from Queensland.
The recall was issued late last week after the discovery of fruit fly larvae in some of the fruit.
Biosecurity South Australia required the distributor to recall all produce from the affected grower, which was in storage or on supermarket shelves, including all produce sent to South Australia since the beginning of December.
However, Biosecurity SA have said that the detection does not constitute an outbreak of fruit fly and that the situation is being closely monitored.
Mareeba District Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association president Joe Moro said he believed the affected fruit did not come from the Far North, but he could not be certain.
“I don’t think the recalled mangoes were from this area, but I can’t say it’s not,” he said.
“From a consumer point of view it won’t be noticed and it’s had a very little impact on the market, but it’ll be a hit for that farmer.”
Last week 587,000 trays of mangoes arrived in markets throughout the country with the recall less than two per cent of the volume.
An Australian Mango Industry Association (AMIA) spokesman said, despite the recall of mangoes in South Australia, consumers could be confident that there would be no shortage of the fruit this Christmas.
“AMIA can assure consumers that this recall will not impact supply and that there will be an abundance of quality fruit in SA and throughout Australia, over the next few weeks and into the new year,” the spokesman said.
“This should also have no impact on current retail pricing.”
Mr Moro said farmers had a responsibility of testing their produce and meeting a range of biosecurity requirements when sending produce to various locations, whether that be domestic or internationally.
“Sending fruit to South Australia is like going to another country,” he said.
“South Australia is the only state where there is a total ban on sending through fruit that hasn’t been tested for fruit fly.
“They take their fruit flyfree status very seriously because they do a lot of overseas export based on that.
“We’ve got fruit flies here in the north so, for us to send product to South Australia, farmers need to treat their mangoes and test their produce before it can be sent away.”