bananas, page-6

I read storynon Phillipine bananas a few weeks ago but now I believe I am wrong. It appears that the govt does not allow bananas imports due to possible disease.

ACA goes bananas over imports
June 16, 2006

THE Philippines' six-year push to get its bananas into Australia may have been sunk even before the release of a final analysis of the import plan.
Australians have been paying dearly since Cyclone Larry in March wiped out most of the nation's banana crop in Queensland, sending prices soaring a record 500 per cent to as much as $15 a kilo.

Retailers have been pressuring the government to allow Australia's first banana imports to ease the shortage.

The Australian Consumers' Association also had supported the push, saying people should be given the choice as long as disease risks are managed.

The Federal Government had again ruled out bringing in the fruit to take the edge of the shortage and the price, but also indicated the longer term prospects of importing bananas were slim.

"Importing bananas could mean importing exotic pests and diseases, which would have an even more crippling, long-term effect on our banana production than Cyclone Larry," Agriculture Minister Peter McGauran said today.

"At present, there is an application to export bananas to Australia from the Philippines, which will continue to be dealt with.

"However, consideration of this application cannot be influenced by current high prices and the shortfall in domestic banana production."

Influential Liberal senator Bill Heffernan, who chairs the Senate's rural and regional affairs committee, said the Philippines' long campaign to get its fruit into Australia had "no chance" of success.

"The prospects of any sensible supervision offshore is nigh impossible," he said.

"Why take the risk? The answer is, over my dead body."

Biosecurity Australia (BA), the government agency which assesses import risks, has faced substantial criticism over its handling of the Philippines bananas issue.

The agency began considering the imports in 2000, first delivering an analysis which ruled out accepting the fruit and then another report suggesting the imports could go ahead under strict conditions.

BA is currently doing a revised risk analysis which is due to be released before the end of the year.peIt is understood that report may consider allowing imported bananas to be sold in areas where local fruit is not grown.

The Australian Banana Growers Council remains firmly opposed to imports and said it hoped the new analysis would settle the issue for good.

"It's dragged out for six years and that's unacceptably long," council chief executive Tony Heidrich said.

"The disease risks are just too high."

Imports would do nothing to solve the current shortage, Mr Heidrich said, with north Queensland crops coming back on line in November.

The process for approving imports is lengthy and can take about a year, with BA first providing a draft risk analysis, then a final report, both of which are open for public comment.

The issue then has to be considered by a panel of scientists before a recommendation goes to government.

A report by Senator Heffernan's committee last year recommended the ban on banana imports remain in force, finding significant flaws in BA's last risk analysis.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19488014-462,00.html