ACT seafood retailer and owner of FishCo John Frangopoulos said the ban, which took effect on January 9 in an attempt to halt the spread of white spot disease, would soon hit consumer's hip pockets hard.

"For every kilo of Australian raw prawns there's 10 kilograms of imported raw product sold," he said.

"Retailers have enough frozen supply in storage now but within 4-5 weeks you can expect prices will soar to $100 per kilo."

The Federal Government took action after an outbreak of the disease threatening the aquaculture industry in Queensland was detected.

White spot disease does not pose a risk to food safety or human health, but is deadly for prawns and if introduced into waterways could threaten Australia's $358 million prawn industry.

Seafood Importers Association of Australasia executive chairman Norman Grant said green prawn prices had begun to rise already.

Without wanting to play down the "dreadful impact" on Logan River prawn farmers forced to destroy $25 million in stock, he said importers were bracing for big losses.

"Most uncooked prawn goes into the food service industry, which is a 12 months of the year business," he said. "If this was to go on for six months and we were to use up all our stock we could see this at restaurant level panning out be half a billion dollars in lost sales."

Master Fish Merchants' Association of Australia executive officer Michael Kitchener said prices could only escalate so far.

"If you think of any chinese restaurant on prawn on a pizza, anything like that, clubs, pubs and restaurants rely on raw prawn meat. Certainly in the restaurant and catering industries they are going to have issues," he said.

"There is a point at which if the price goes up too far people just stop buying."

Australian Prawn Farmers Association president Matt West said state and federal authorities' surveillance to date had shown infection was contained to Queensland.

Overseas prawn industries had been decimated by white spot so Mr West said the pain felt by farmers and the wider industry now was necessary to stamp out the serious threat.

He said a third of Australian farmed prawns had been destroyed.

"The state and federal government have gone in really hard. They have thrown 3 million litres of chlorine into farms that had one pond infected," he said.

Mr Grant felt the government could have avoided a "knee-jerk reaction" to the outbreak and with planning could have prevented containers already at sea, costing $250,000 each, arriving to no buyers or to be destroyed.

Seafood Importers Association of Australasia planned to talk with the government about returning to trade with more robust inspections and hoped the challenging time would lead to national efforts to stamp out "cowboy importers."

"We have been calling on the government for years, decades to either licence importers or create some hurdles for entry into this business," he said.

"We are absolutely the victims of this. Our people have been doing the right thing, we are not the fly-by-nighters that come in, import a few containers and evade testing which has been apparently been going on, while the rest of us pay the price."

The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources spokesman said the department recognised the suspension was likely to have flow-on effects for Australian industry and consumers.

High levels precaution was necessary as the virus was able to survive freezing for prolonged periods.

"The suspension will remain in place until the Australian Government is satisfied that the risk associated with imported prawns is managed to an acceptably low level," the spokesperson said.

"The suspension will not be in place any longer than necessary. The department has already commenced work on a plan for the safe resumption of trade."