Potentially devastating citrus disease eradicated from Australia

Source: Xinhua| 2021-04-13 13:15:17|Editor: huaxia
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CANBERRA, April 13 (Xinhua) -- The potentially devastating citrus canker plant disease has officially been eradicated from Australia.

Citrus canker damages citrus fruit it infects and causes unripe fruit to fall to the ground.

The disease was found in Darwin, capital of the Northern Territory (NT), in April 2018, 14 years after Australia's last outbreak in Queensland where it destroyed 500,000 citrus trees.

It has now been eradicated after more than 6,000 plants were destroyed and a national ban was implemented on NT citrus products.

Anne Walters, the NT's Chief Plant Health Officer, said eradication of the disease was a big win for the industry.

"(The eradication) is really critical because Australia being able to say we are free of citrus canker means that, nationally, all of our growers can demand a more premium price for our product because we don't have this disease," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Monday.

The Australian citrus industry is one of the country's largest fresh fruit exporters, sending several hundred million Australian dollars worth of fruit overseas every year. Enditem

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