Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Senator the Hon Murray Watt
South Australian Minister for Primary Industries, Regional Development and Forest Industries, Clare Scriven MLC
The fight against fruit fly is set to be boosted with the opening of the $3 million expansion of the world leading National Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) facility at Port Augusta.
The upgrade will grow the current centre, which originally opened in November 2016, helping to drive down fruit fly numbers in South Australia.
Funded under the Federal Government's $30 million Building Resilience to Manage Fruit Fly package, with additional contributions from PIRSA and Citrus SA, the expansion will enable a doubling of the number of sterile Queensland fruit flies (Q-fly) produced at the facility from 20 to 40 million a week.
Most of the flies reared at Port Augusta will be sent for release in South Australia's Riverland as part of the response to the current outbreaks in the region.
The program reduces the fruit fly population by mating the sterile flies with wild flies, resulting in no fertile offspring.
In addition to its key role in the Riverland outbreak response, the expanded facility could also provide flies to support other key Australian horticulture areas combatting Q-fly.
Fruit flies are the world's worst horticultural pest, destroying fruit and vegetables in commercial crops, home gardens and impacting on trade access. In Australia, Q-fly is one of two major species that impacts fruit and vegetable crops, the other being Mediterranean or Medfly.
