Growers have fired a broadside at government plans to share the costs of managing plant diseases, saying it could increase the price of fresh produce in shops.
Any attempt to increase the burden of policing plant health controls for growers had to go hand-in-hand with better border checks and tighter import rules, said horticulture board chairman Richard Hirst.
"How can the government expect us to shoulder the costs associated with plant disease when weak or non-existent border controls make it so easy to bring in serious pests," Hirst said. "At some point there is the potential for a major disease problem to push up prices for consumers."
The arrival in the UK last month of a parasite called a gall mite, which disfigures fuchsias, made a mockery of Britain's plant health defences, he claimed.
The parasite was introduced by an amateur gardener in uninspected clippings from the Channel Islands. It makes flowers commercially unsaleable and crops have to be destroyed to prevent it spreading. An outbreak in California has forced a number of growers in the US state to stop growing fuchsias altogether.
"Why should we, and the consumer, pay for a lax inspection programme?" Hirst added.
"There's no signage at borders about the danger of importing disease and if the government is planning to reduce inspections it'll be easier than ever for pests to enter the country in shipments of fruit, veg or plant material."
Defra is still drawing up proposals on how to share plant health costs with the industry. But the principle is already established in other sectors, and Hirst said it was inevitable in horticulture as well.
Academics at Imperial College are putting the finishing touches to a study of Defra's proposals and it should be published at the end of the month.
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