Trapping trial offers encouraging results in pursuit of a treatment free pathway for interstate cherry trade

Fruit Growers Tasmania | Friday, 26 June 2026, 8.45am

A trapping program which ran in season 2025-26 to monitor for Oriental Fruit Moth found zero captures of the moth in participating cherry orchards in southern Tasmania. This may be an important outcome in support of Tasmanian growers’ pursuit of treatment free trade of cherries to Western Australia (WA).

Oriental Fruit Moth is a pest of quarantine concern for WA, and they list cherries as a host fruit. Oriental Fruit Moth is better known for its damage to, and infestation of, peaches and nectarines. However, with detections of Oriental Fruit Moth previously recorded in Tasmania, access to WA currently requires our cherries to first undergo fumigation or irradiation before entering WA.

In pursuit of a treatment free pathway, we sought to develop documented evidence of low pest prevalence through trapping. Fruit Growers Tasmania, together with participating growers, implemented a trial trapping program in the 2025-26 cherry season to build evidence of low pest prevalence in cherry orchards.

Four packhouses and 20 orchard blocks from six businesses across two regions in southern Tasmania contributed to a trapping grid spanning 154 hectares. Traps with a pheromone lure to attract male Oriental Fruit Moth were deployed in late October 2025 and checked for captures on a weekly basis. A total of 77 traps translated to an average trap density of 1 trap per 2 hectares. Traps were surveyed between 13-18 times each, generating a total of 1,334 data points, all with zero moths captured. This is a very encouraging outcome.

Biosecurity Tasmania is working with Fruit Growers Tasmania to develop a proposed treatment free Operational Procedure for consideration by DPIRD in WA. This follows considerable work by Fruit Growers Tasmania to understand and document a risk analysis for Oriental Fruit Moth in cherries and explore potential options for risk mitigation. We have taken into consideration systems approaches which will reduce the risk to the importing jurisdiction, as well as understanding the level of risk mitigation offered by the South Australian cherry industry in their Trade Agreement with WA.

It is intended the proposed Operational Procedure will be largely consistent with the Interstate Certification Assurance Scheme recognised by DPIRD in WA. We are hopeful that this operational procedure will be acceptable to WA and enable a more favourable trade arrangement to be established for the cherry season 2026-27.

Thanks to our growers who participated in the trapping program last season we now have improved evidence to support any proposal.