00:00Millions of tomato plants thrown in the bin and hundreds of job losses were the consequences
00:08for Perfection Fresh last year when a tomato virus was first detected.
00:12It was heartbreaking, it was devastating, words fail me, but it was terrible.
00:20One of the worst days of my career was the day that I had to stand in front of nearly
00:24500 people and tell them that we had no job for them.
00:27The major fruit and vegetable grower north of Adelaide was one of three impacted businesses
00:31to face strict restrictions after officials decided to try to eradicate the tomato brown
00:36rugose fruit virus in South Australia rather than manage the virus.
00:41Now the National Management Group has conceded eradication is no longer possible with the
00:45virus detected in Victoria.
00:47Of the three businesses it's been incredibly difficult and for others who were originally
00:52traced properties it was also very challenging.
00:54But we have over 200 growers here in South Australia and they have been able to continue
00:59to trade with the other states throughout this time.
01:02It could have been better managed in our opinion.
01:05We advocated from day one that this virus needed to be managed and eradication was impossible,
01:15we thought.
01:16Despite the changed approach, the three impacted businesses will continue to face strict conditions
01:21when moving tomatoes into state, at least for now.
01:24But the government says it's now weighing up options to change those testing requirements.
01:28We're working with the other jurisdictions to work out what that will look like.
01:33Some jurisdictions may still have testing requirements and that's what's being worked through as we
01:37speak.
01:38The National Management Group has impacted growers after a tough few months.
01:49encial.com
Comments