Australia's Queensland vows to stop pineapple imports

BRISBANE, Australia, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Australia's Queensland will try everything possible to reverse the federal government's decision to allow pineapple imports from Malaysia, State Agriculture Minister John McVeigh said on Thursday.

McVeigh condemned the decision in parliament on Thursday, saying it was one of the worst decisions made by the anti- agriculture Labor government in Canberra.

He said if Canberra's decision was allowed to proceed, Queensland's pineapple industry risked being decimated by exotic diseases such as bacterial heart rot and fruit collapse.

"The Gillard Labor government risks wiping out a key regional industry in Queensland for the sake of its bureaucratic and process-driven open door trade policies," he said in a statement.

"This is about a lazy government and faceless bureaucrats making decisions that could wipe out our pineapple industry."

Queensland has been Australia's major pineapple-producing state for the past 100 years. The pineapple industry worth 80 million AU dollars annually underpins more than 1,000 jobs on Queensland farms and through the supply chain during the peak season.

McVeigh said he would also be fighting Canberra's proposal to allow fresh ginger imports from Fiji, which risked further bacterial diseases, along with contaminated soil.

"I call on Federal Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig to start standing up for his fellow Queenslanders and fight in federal cabinet to put an end to this nonsense," he said.

June 21, 2012

Source: Xinhua