The Department of Agriculture has revealed that there are now six sites in the ACT where the Khapra beetle has been found.
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Another store has been closed beyond the Good Guys stores in Fyshwick and Belconnen where the beetle was first discovered. The Good Guys shop in Tuggeranong has also closed.
The Agriculture Department said:
- Three stores have been closed and it is yet to be determined when they will reopen
- Three customers had purchased a fridge from a retail outlet
- The infested refrigerators were all imported in the same container
- Tracing, surveillance, and additional fumigation has been undertaken to ensure the interceptions do not pose an ongoing biosecurity risk.
The beetle is viewed as a serious threat to Australian agriculture if it were to get out into the environment and then into grain stores.
"If the beetle was to establish here, many of our trading partners would reject stored produce from Australia. Given that Australia exports much of the grain we grow, the beetle could cause huge losses, affecting Australia's economy," the department said.
The department estimated that the damage to the Australian economy would amount to $15.5 billion.
A Good Guys spokesman said when the beetles were found the Fyshwick and Belconnen stores would be closed temporarily while assessments were carried out.
But a week later, there is still no information about what was found or when the stores might reopen, nor about where the three further sites where the beetle has been found are.
The company said on Wednesday evening that the stores would reopen on Thursday.
It is not known how the beetle came to be in a shipment of fridges to the ACT. The beetle species can "hitchhike" in containers that previously carried high-risk items.
Goods associated with the affected shipments are being traced.
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"They can be found in stored products and around places where stored products are kept or transported. This includes between cracks and wall linings of storage containers," an Agriculture Department spokesman said.
"The department is analysing global trade patterns to gain a better understanding as to why these interceptions are taking place, and how non-food goods can become infested."
Steve Evans
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
