New plant to combat fruit fly opens in Vietnam

Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Mr Joe Thwaites and the Chairman of the Tien Giang People’s Committee officially opened a new plant, to turn brewery waste into baits to attract and kill fruit flies, in Tien Giang Province, Vietnam on Friday 16 April.

The plant will process yeast waste, a by-product of beer production, into a bait to trap fruit flies, the major pest of fruit and vegetable crops in the region.

AusAID and the Crawford Fund have also been involved in getting the plant off the ground. Fosters Vietnam, and BASF (formerly Aventis) have been key industry partners, providing the space and support for the plant and finalising the bait formula and producing it, respectively.

ACIAR has supported research, conducted by Griffith University's International Centre for Management of Pest Fruit Flies, that developed the innovative approach to managing fruit flies.

The process works through treating the beer waste with heat and enzymes to convert it to protein, which is highly attractive to flies. When diluted with water and a miniscule amount of insecticide the protein can be applied as a spot on a tree, sufficient to kill flies. The baits can be applied by hand and are cheap to produce.

Speaking at the official opening Ambassador Thwaites praised the project for the benefit it would deliver to Vietnamese farmers. "This is a wonderful example of the ability of effective research and effective partnerships being able to deliver a real benefit to those in need of it. It will not just benefit these farmers by allowing them to produce more, but will also deliver environmental benefits and have positive effects on human health."

Fruit flies are the most damaging invertebrate pest of agriculture in southeast Asia. Vietnam is not pest-free, with losses attributed to fruit flies being as high as 100 per cent of some crops in some areas. Up to 95 per cent of each year’s peach crop is destroyed by these pests.

The only control that has been proven as a deterrent is to drench crops with chemical cover sprays. The prevention is in many ways worse than the damage, with potential human health and environmental problems arising from inappropriate chemical use and residues remaining in food and trees. Other invertebrates are killed along with the flies, including natural predators of the fruit fly and other pests.

The practice is also a trade barrier in the region, limiting the economic returns from the potentially valuable horticulture industry. (Below is the label under which the protein is being marketed. Sofri stands for the Southern Fruit Research Institute - the key Vietnamese partner in the project and the plant's development).