Australia's biosecurity system has been described as not fit for purpose and the country's almond industry is demanding changes so farmers are not left paying the cost of importers' mistakes.
Varroa mite, first detected around Newcastle late last month, led to a shutdown of the New South Wales bee industry and concerns the pest could cripple the country's billion-dollar almond industry.
Almond Board of Australia chief executive Tim Jackson said he expected the first 100 days of the varroa mite response would cost his industry "tens of millions of dollars".
"We don't cause the problem but it seems like we have to pay for the problem," Mr Jackson said.
"It's an ongoing source of frustration for agriculture in Australia that whenever we have a biosecurity risk, we foot the total bill."
Varroa is deadly to bees, which the almond industry relies on to pollinate trees.
Mr Jackson said he believed the reason Australia had been free of varroa for so long due to good luck as much as good management.
"This and the foot-and-mouth threat that looms in Indonesia is certainly heightening the awareness around the need for proper resources to be dedicated to biosecurity," he said.
Mr Jackson said while he had his fingers crossed the varroa infestation could be brought under control, the latest incursion in NSW would have an impact for years to come.
He wants importers to pay a levy to cover the cost of keeping pests out and fixing the problem if they make it past the border.
A biosecurity imports levy was recommended by a independent review in 2017, but it was never introduced.
"I think a far more equitable payment system to cover off these all-important biosecurity risks is long overdue," Mr Jackson said.
Better use of technology could identify pests early
Members of the shipping industry are receptive to those calls.
Freight and Trade Alliance head of biosecurity Sal Milici said the importing industry would be open to paying extra if it also brought improvements for trade.
"There are quite severe delays at the moment around inspections of containerised cargo," he said.
He suggested greater use of technology at ports to find pests before they slipped into the country.
"We all learned a lot about contact tracing over the last couple of years — that's sorely needed for international shipping containers," he said.
The khapra beetle, which can destroy grain stores, can lay dormant in a shipping container for more than five years.
"Border agencies need to know where that container has been, and what's been inside for the last five years," Mr Milici said.
"That information isn't available by international shipping lines at the moment, but I think that's a very important first step."
Invasive Species Council chief executive Andrew Cox said strengthening the country's biosecurity protections required cooperation between different industries and sectors.
"We've got a biosecurity system that's really not equipped to deal with the challenges," he said.
"We're seeing repeated incursions and we need to see stronger investment."
Mr Cox described the spread of the varroa destructor mite in NSW as a symptom of a system under stress.
"We're just seeing constant breaches of new pests and diseases and weeds," he said.
"We've got recent incursions of banana freckle, last year we had the shot-hole borer in Perth and we've got serious diseases on our doorstep.
"We've got foot-and-mouth, and even lumpy skin disease, just to the north of us."
Australia a biosecurity leader, Victorian official says
Victoria's Chief Plant Health Officer, Rosa Crnov, was hopeful varroa would not spread beyond NSW and its spread there would be halted.
"NSW essentially has the whole state in lockdown," Dr Crnov said.
"We're doing everything we can to keep varroa out."
She said while agencies were doing a good job at keeping pests out, the country's borders were not impenetrable.
"There's always merit in improved technologies to support early detection of any pests on our border and I'm sure that our Commonwealth colleagues who look after our ports of entry are thinking along those lines as well," Dr Crnov said.
She said the fact Australia had kept varroa destructor at bay for so long was proof that the protections were working.
"When you look at Australia's biosecurity record relative to other nations across the planet, you will see that we are leaders in this space," Dr Crnov said.
"Last year we had more than 700 suspect exotic unwanted pets that we had to deal with.
"Fortunately, very few of them required more than triage."
Bees from NSW are banned in Victoria now and the southern state has implemented restrictions on the movement of hives.
Apiarists now require a permit to take bees into the Sunraysia area, where many of Victoria's almond orchards are located.
"With the permitting system we'll be able to do any tracing work if we need to if we end up with a detection of varroa here in Victoria," Dr Crnov said.
