Oriental fruit fly under control

Department detected pests in the Orange River area

THE WESTERN Cape has not had any new cases of oriental fruit fly (OFF) in the province, says Hortgro, the representative body of the Western Cape fruit industry.

Hortgro was responding to yesterday’s announcement from the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) on the recent detection of the oriental fruit fly in the Orange River area within the ZF Mgcawu District Municipality in the Northern Cape Province.

Hugh Campbell, the general manager at Hortgro Science, said the communication from the department was three months late as the notification should have gone out in mid-May when the detections were made.

Campbell said according to the department the required eradication measures were being implemented and the quarantine of the area would be lifted once no oriental fruit fly have been caught in the region for three oriental fruit fly generations which is equivalent to weeks.

He said the only reported point detections in the Western Cape were in Grabouw on February 18 and in Devon Valley in March and April 18.

“Both areas have officially been declared eradicated after the necessary quarantine and control measures were implemented by DAFF in conjunction with industry. OFF along with other fruit flies are being monitored by a dedicated monitoring company, Fruit Fly Africa. In addition each grower monitors for OFF,” said Campbell.

He added that it was the objective of the industry to ensure that the pest did not establish in the areas where it was currently not present , which included the Western Cape and, therefore, any interception that might occur would be managed according to the OFF Action Plan.

“Short to medium term, our objectives is to eradicate it from the areas where it has not established.

IF IT EVENTUALLY DOES ESTABLISH ITSELF, WE HAVE TECHNOLOGIES AVAILABLE TO MANAGE ORIENTAL FRUIT FLY EFFECTIVELY