A NATIONAL biosecurity program has been unveiled for the citrus industry, designed to protect the industry from harmful exotic pests and diseases such as Asian citrus psyllid.
The five-year program, CitrusWatch, will aim to expand surveillance, conduct industry training, lead risk assessment and modelling, and improve governance and collaboration.
It is funded by Hort Innovation, using the citrus research and development levy, the Plant Health Australia biosecurity levy and contributions from the Australian government.
CitrusWatch's holistic surveillance approach will include commercial production areas, as well as high-density, high-risk, urban and peri-urban regions throughout Australia, to support both an industry and community early detection network.
"Australian citrus is a mature export industry with access to most major markets around the world," Citrus Australia chief executive officer Nathan Hancock said.
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"An exotic pest or disease incursion could shut the industry down overnight. We have a strong focus on staying disease and pest free to maintain access to world markets and support our growers."
The Northern Territory government's Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade and research group, Cesar Australia, will provide surveillance, communication and research support.
"CitrusWatch is designed to bolster surveillance mechanisms and increase expertise to quickly detect, identify, and address incursions of high priority pests," said PHA Surveillance and Diagnostics national manager Sharyn Taylor.
NT government's chief plant health officer Anne Walters said the department is looking forward to utilising relationships across northern Australia to deliver the project.
"Building on our learnings from the recent citrus canker eradication and odour detection programs will enable us to develop more effective and robust approaches to identify and target high priority pests," Dr Walters said.
"We are particularly excited about the opportunity to engage with industry and the community to extend our surveillance network and improve awareness of biosecurity more broadly."
The Biosecurity Plan for the Citrus Industry will be reviewed and updated as part of the program, as will the modelling the Asian citrus psyllid risk of entry, spread and establishment based on available biological and climatic data.
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