With support from the National Fruit Fly Council (NFFC), Plant Health Australia (PHA) commenced a Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) funded economic analysis project. The economic analysis, conducted by the Centre of International Economics (CIE) will, along with significant stakeholder consultation, underpin the development of a new 10-year National Fruit Fly Strategy (NFFS).

The CIE has commenced the first phase of industry consultation which will quantify the impact of fruit flies on Australia’s horticultural industries. This baseline analysis will consider fruit fly damage levels across fruit fly affected crops, the costs of fly management activities such as trapping and baiting, and the costs associated with phytosanitary measures required to maintain domestic and international market access.

Once the baseline analysis has been developed, further stakeholder consultation will be undertaken to better understand the future drivers of fruit fly management and trade access. These drivers will then be used to estimate the potential economic impacts fruit flies on affected industries.

The final phase of the project will assess future fruit fly management solutions to help guide the direction of fruit fly RD&E investment and the new NFFS to be developed this year.

The success of the project and the development of the NFFS will be driven by industry consultation. The NFFC and CIE will conduct a series of industry focused stakeholder workshops in Queensland fruit fly and Mediterranean fruit fly affected regions from June through August 2026. These workshops will seek industry feedback on the draft economic analysis and NFFS. Further details will be shared as the project progresses.