What's it all about?

This investment protects the citrus industry's health status by ensuring that disease-free, true-to-type propagation material is available to prevent incurable diseases from entering Australia.

The research team is working to increase understanding of the demand for new citrus varieties, support the provision of disease-free sources of propagation material, and reduce the likelihood of illegally imported budwood.

Healthy budwood of the varieties sought by industry is available through the National Citrus Repository Program and the Auscitrus propagation scheme. However, there is a small but regular demand for minor citrus varieties which are not currently available as clean budwood from health-tested sources.

Recent border detections of material potentially impacting the Australian citrus industry have highlighted the need to understand the demand for such citrus varieties in Australia and reduce the risk of illegal importation. The Australian citrus industry recognises that many of these desired varieties originate in parts of the world where devastating diseases and pests are found, such as huanglongbing (HLB), citrus variegated chlorosis (CVC) and the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP).