THE disease risk to Australia's pineapple industry has been thrust back into the spotlight with Federal Member for Capricornia Michelle Landry raising the issue in the last sitting of parliament.
Ms Landry warned Federal Parliament that Queensland's $80 million a year pineapple industry was in danger of being wiped out because of a push by bureaucrats to allow fresh de-crowned pines to be imported from Malaysia.
Of most concern to growers is the devastating disease Erwinia Chrysanthemi - an internal rot endemic to Malaysia.
In some cases, the build-up of gas within the fruit has caused fruit to explode.
Ms Landry described the disease as the industry's grim reaper if it entered Australia.
She took direct aim at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) and Australia's Director of Quarantine.
"This is a dreadful disease and a crisis that threatens an entire industry in Queensland; threatens to cause a devastating impact on livelihoods and the local economy and threatens to put Australia in a position from which it can never repair or reverse," Ms Landry said.
Ms Landry has become the adopted advocate for the local industry since taking 300 fresh Yeppoon pineapples to Parliament House earlier this year to distribute to every MP and Senator.
Her "Pines for Parliament" campaign was designed to highlight the diversity of the electorate.
"I cannot stand by silently when our pineapple industry - a famous Queensland icon - is at risk from foreign disease and bureaucratic stupidity," she said.
Pineapples were included in an April senate committee inquiry which called for changes to the Import Risk Analysis (IRA) Handbook, as well as for the formation of a "single, independent, statutory authority - separate from the Department of Agriculture - with responsibility for quarantine and biosecurity policy and operations".
Within the report's specifics for pineapples was the recommendation that "before commencing the importation of fresh pineapples from Malaysia, the Department of Agriculture should establish to a much greater degree of certainty the degree of post-harvest latency of pineapple fruit collapse and heart rot".
It also called for the Department of Agriculture (DA) to review its assessment of the probability of importation and distribution of the heart rot and fruit collapse pathogen, Erwinia chrysanthemi (pineapple strain, Dickeya sp.).
A comment within the report stated it was clear to the committee that there was considerable uncertainty surrounding latent infection rates of Dickeya sp., "particularly as DA Biosecurity's best estimate of up to two percent post-harvest latency is based on a study from the 1970s, which itself is based on research from the 1930s".
Yeppoon-based major pineapple grower and processor Tropical Pines supported Ms Landry's call for action.
Tropical Pines CEO Derek Lightfoot said DAFF had made a critical error when assessing the impact of the disease.
"DAFF has assessed the probability of the disease coming here as low. But this is a grave mistake because we believe they have confused the frequency - or number of diseased pineapples entering Australia - with the actual probability of diseased pineapples entering Australia. This is an important distinction," he said.
"The only way to manage the disease is to throw away the pineapples that are showing signs while they are being packed for export back in Malaysia.
"Yet 2pc of pineapples which are contaminated will not show any signs, even though they are still infected internally.
"When an event is certain, the probability is 100pc and therefore the probability for the disease should have been assessed by DAFF as high."
Experienced pineapple industry manager Mick Cranny warned there were no known methods of dealing with the disease in a crop and no known way to eradicate it.
"This disease is most prevalent in the most popular varieties grown in Malaysia and has been known to wipe out up to 40pc of a crop when detected," Mr Cranny said.
"In Hawaii, other plants grown in the soil that had previously grown contaminated pineapples were affected."
Both industry leaders have rejected suggestions made by bureaucrats that Queensland was worried about extra market competition, rather than the disease itself.
Growcom, the peak body for the pineapple industry, voiced its concern in September following the discovery of live roundworms in a carton of imported ginger from Fiji, fearing pineapples could be at risk from imported pests or diseases.
The group pointed out that the Government has yet to formally respond to the recommendations of the Senate Inquiry report.