Banana growers in NSW are being urged to check plants for symptoms of a rare fungal disease, following a recent outbreak in the Northern Territory.
A national program is now underway to eradicate Banana Freckle from the Top End. Queensland has banned fruit and plants from the Northern Territory from there crossing its border.
But Stephen Spear, a NSW director with the Australian Banana Growers' Council, doesn't believe NSW would stop the Queensland banana trade if the freckle fungus spread to there.
"Simply because the industry in NSW has got to such a position that we're virtually struggling to support our local markets at the moment," he said.
"So there's no way the NSW industry could support all the major cities even in NSW let alone in any other states in Australia.
"If it got into North Queensland, it's not an exotic disease then and I'm not sure how it would go.
"Obviously the growers in NSW might appreciate loss of production in North Queensland, but that's not the way the ABGC is looking at the issue.
"We're trying to keep the disease at the moment in the NT."
Mr Spear says that if the disease reaches Queensland, the chance of it travelling down the coast to NSW increases.
"I think at the moment it's only spread by infected plants or fruit, and once it gets into an area it's then spread by water, raindrops," he said.
"You have to have a progression of plantations for this disease to spread, but the issue we're really worried about is people travelling around Australia bringing fruit or bringing plants."
Until August this year, Banana Freckle had only been detected twice, in Western Australia's Kununurra and Kalumburu in 1979 and 2001.
But NSW Department of Primary Industry Director of Biosecurity Satendra Kumar says it may be necessary to ban Queensland bananas from NSW if the freckle outbreak spreads.
"The disease is spread by rain but it is also spread on the plant and we would need to look at a ban if it was found in Queensland."
He says that for now, though, eradication is the main priority regarding the Darwin outbreak and state and federal government and industry are all playing a part.
He says the other concerning element in this outbreak is that it is affecting the main commercial variety of Cavendish, something that had not been as much of an issue in past outbreaks.