There are two new tomato companies contaminated with the Tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV) in the Netherlands, as became apparent from a new status update from the NVWA regarding the virus. The locations in question are in the Dutch municipalities of Noordoostpolder and Westvoorne.
One of the recent findings is linked to a contamination at a plant grower. The NVWA had already reported on it in December of last year. Research is still going on, as was mentioned in a new pest report.
5x clean, 8x re-fertilized
In total, there are 23 officially contaminated companies at the moment, according to the NVWA, combining around 436.8 hectares of greenhouses. Five contaminated companies (25.7 hectares) have been disclosed after a successful sampling and testing. At eight locations, countermeasures appeared unsuccessful, and the virus was again found in the new cultivation. During a previous update in January of this year, the same results were found at four other growers.
An infected crop. Photo: NVWA
Growers reported a decline in the harvest of 5-30% in cases of contamination. In some cases, the growers had a decline of less than 5%. In terms of removing and getting rid of the crops, the grower is looking at a price of about 5 to 10 thousand euros per hectares, according to the estimate of the NVWA.
Two companies have switched to a different crop for cultivation, and the measures no longer apply to them. Two other companies preceded them and are therefore no longer supervised. Sampling for disclosure will be executed again if these locations will continue cultivating tomatoes in the future.
23 locations supervised
The score as of the 30th of March 2021 is as follows:
8 discoveries in the municipality Westland
5 in Hollands Kroon
1 in Lansingerland
1 in Reimerswaal
1 in Haarlemmermeer
1 in Horst aan de Maas
1 in Goeree-Overflakkee
1 in Brielle
1 in Steenbergen
1 in Zuidplas
1 in Westvoorne
1 in Noordoostpolder
In total, there have been 32 contaminated locations reported in the Netherlands since the first official report of an outbreak on the 17th of October 2019, which covers a good 476.6 hectares.