The national fruit fly arena continues to be active with considerable progress in recent months against key priority areas supporting the delivery of the National Fruit Fly Strategy (2020-25) and the Council and fruity fly system more broadly. These include holding two strategically important fruit fly and trade hypothetical workshops, one in Brisbane and a second in Melbourne; holding 15 engagement workshop workshops across multiple industry Government and trade stakeholders which were aimed at further developing a national approach to our fruit fly management system; development of a new National Fruit Fly Council structure including the capacity to convene a series of Council working groups covering trade, research and extension and; preparation of National Fruit Fly Implementation Report for 2021/22 period and future plans for 2022/23. Many of these are outlined in more detail in the newsletter.

In addition, there have been numerous opportunities to engage with a variety of fruit fly related groups including SITplus committees, Riverland Fruit Fly Committee (RFFC), Victorian Fruit Fly Coordinators as well as involvement in a number of fruit fly related studies being undertaken including the PwC led ‘Sustainable resourcing for fruit fly management initiative’ and the Deloitte led ‘Fruit Fly Resilience Scoping Study’ covering the current fruit fly management system and its effectiveness and recommended future infrastructure investments.

The Plant Health Australia (PHA) fruit fly team is excited to continue to work towards strengthening the fruit fly system, with numerous activities planned in the lead up to the 2023 National Fruit Fly Symposium scheduled for July ….. watch this space!