Fresh and Secure Trade Alliance

The Fresh and Secure Trade Alliance (FASTA), launched 14 August 2023, is a $130 million collaborative research program designed to protect and grow Australia’s horticultural exports.

About

This 8-year program involves a national, multidisciplinary, multi-organisational research team.

It will:

  • combine national research expertise in regulatory market access with in-field insect pest management
  • address and identify the impact of fruit fly and other insects that pose a barrier to trade in horticulture.

It aims to enhance and safeguard horticultural exports through six aligned research components while:

  • addressing commercial production realities
  • modernising research efforts for technical market access.

Purpose

  • Facilitate a national, industry-driven and coordinated approach to market access research activities.
  • Provide robust data supporting market access through applied and transformative research.

Objectives

  • Increase international and domestic horticulture trade (post-harvest).
  • Reduce the impact of endemic pests on sustainable horticulture crop production (pre-harvest).
  • Improve preparedness for exotic pests (biosecurity).
  • Increase or maintain market access research capacity (people).

Focus

  • Reduce infestation risks, both pre- and post-harvest.
  • Investigate conventional and innovative phytosanitary treatments.
  • Deliver robust and timely datasets to underpin domestic and international trade.
    • State and territory governments will work together to standardise their approach to collecting phytosanitary, or pest and disease management, data.
    • The datasets will demonstrate that Australia’s produce is pest-free and ensure that the impact of phytosanitary treatments on fruit quality is minimised.
    • The datasets will be used to open new export markets for Australian produce and improve access to existing ones.
  • Increase understanding of fruit fly and other key pests.
    • Scientists across Australia will test new technologies for tracking pests, trapping pests and reducing pest pressure.

Program delivery

FASTA allows for agility and ongoing reprioritisation of research activities in response to emerging market access and biosecurity needs.

The program is being delivered under 6 components.

Market access

  • Collate national phytosanitary data records for easy and rapid quantification of market access risks and opportunities.
  • Develop traditional and novel phytosanitary treatment schedules and systems protocols for both domestic and international markets.
  • Streamline technical market access processes.
  • Use industry priorities to develop phytosanitary data packages to open new markets and improve or update existing trade pathways.

Stress physiology

  • Unearth the probable mechanisms of insect death and associated physiological thresholds.
  • Better understand the physiological and genetic responses of pests under stress to inform how phytosanitary disinfestation treatments and in-field management can be manipulated for optimum benefit.
  • Explore plant attributes under stress to identify the physical and associated molecular markers for natural resistance to pest infestation and implement the outcomes into breeding programs.

Surveillance and diagnostics

  • Upscale morphological and molecular identification of pests for biosecurity, diagnostics and surveillance. This will enhance our capacity to show that Australia is free from exotic pests of economic or quarantine concern and allow trade to continue.
  • Apply new fine-scale genomic tracing methods to improve our ability to determine the size, connectivity among, and potential growth and spread of pest incursions and local fruit fly populations.

Integrated pest management

  • Build evidence-based in-field management strategies for different regions and production systems (including protected cropping). In-field management contributes to clean, marketable fruit and improved confidence in systems approaches when securing new markets.
  • Provide Australian growers with new tools and strategies to manage horticultural pests in a cleaner and greener way that:
    • reduces reliance on chemical pesticides
    • ensures produce is fit for export.

Smart technologies

  • Assist the horticulture sector in trade efforts by providing new tools that:
    • rapidly detect pests
    • track the dispersion of pests
    • demonstrate removal of infested product from supply chains.
  • Improve detection of fruit fly and other pests of quarantine concern in horticultural produce using optical techniques that:
    • provide an independent measure for meeting biosecurity requirements
    • give confidence that Australian produce is free from pests.

Building capacity

  • Build and safeguard the expertise and partnerships within Australia to deliver effective phytosanitary market access research under a harmonised approach.
  • Focus on:
    • collaborating across partners
    • identifying opportunities to collaborate with industry.

Funding

The Fresh and Secure Trade Alliance is funded through Hort Innovation’s Hort Frontiers strategic partnership initiative, with co-investment from:

  • Department of Primary Industries (Qld)
  • Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (WA)
  • Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (Vic)
  • Department of Tourism, Industry and Trade (NT)
  • Department of Primary Industries and Regions (SA)
  • Department of Natural Resources and Environment (Tas)
  • Queensland University of Technology
  • James Cook University
  • Western Sydney University (NSW)
  • Australian Blueberry Growers’ Association
  • GreenSkin Avocados

with contributions from the Australian Government and the strawberry and avocado R&D levy.

Contact

Last updated: 29 Nov 2024