Lifeline for NT melon growers

With Katherine properties representing eight of the 11 in the Northern Territory slapped with a two-year quarantine after returning positive tests for CGMMV, Primary Industry and Fisheries Minister Willem Westra van Holthe said the grants were about keeping local growers afloat, not compensation.

"We recognise that the farmers here are in this position through no fault of their own,” he told Fairfax Media.

“It’s not compensation, but it is a grant as such, to assist with the serviceability side of loans that farmers have currently have or will have to take out to keep themselves afloat for the next two years," he said.

Under the scheme, the government has allocated $600,000 per year for the next two years, which growers can use to pay down interest.

Mr Westra van Holthe said he was disappointed that the Australian Melon Association was not a signatory to the national Emergency Plant Pest Response Deed, meaning Territory growers hit hard by the CGMMV outbreak were not eligible for financial assistance.

He added that he was prepared to go back to his cabinet colleagues to ask for more money if any additional properties tested positive for the virus.

“Look, right now, we’ve got $600,000 approved per year for the next two years.

“If circumstances change, I’m happy to go back to cabinet and ask for some more.

“At the moment, it is where it’s at, and we’ll reassess it if necessary.

“Notionally, or nominally, if there are 10 affected properties and we’ve got $600,000 - well, they’ll be entitled to $60,000 each, but there is some flexibility built into all that.”

Katherine grower Mitchell Curtis, whose Fox Road property was quarantined just five months after he purchased it, said the subsidy scheme would help, but was critical the watermelon industry still had not signed the EPPRD.

“This announcement today will be loosening some of the pain, but there’s still a hard road ahead of us to make sure we get through all of this,” Mr Curtis said.

“I’ve been in discussions with the melon industry and, at current times, they sound like they’re not even looking at doing that now, so I’m a bit perplexed," he said.

Mr Curtis normally produces about 5000 tonnes of the fruit each year on his property, but was aiming to harvest just a fifth of that in 12 weeks’ time on 20 hectares of land provided by the Territory government.

“The government has actually given me some land to grow melons on this year, so I’ll be planting a small patch.

“It’s an ideal piece of dirt, as the infrastructure was already all in place.

“If I only had the melons I would have been history.”