Strawberry farm foils poisoning attemptAn investigation is...

Strawberry farm foils poisoning attempt

An investigation is underway into an apparent attempt to poison a 70-hectare crop of strawberries on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

Traces of an unknown chemical were found in the water supply of Gowinta Farms at Beerwah earlier this week before any damage was caused.

Spokesman James Ashby says there was a similar incident in 2009, when an entire greenhouse crop of tomatoes and cucumbers was deliberately poisoned.

"Since then we managed to implement some systems and security which has prevented a second attack on the farm which could have had more serious consequences for 170 acres of strawberries," he said.

"This whole year's crop would have been wiped out. It's such a horrible thing to think anyone is capable of doing.

"We're not in the position to point fingers. We don't know and I would hate to even guess who is capable of doing this. It does take a person with some severe problems to go to these lengths."