ToBRFV Biosecurity Watch — What Australian Tomato Growers Need to Know in 2026

By Yield Australia Biosecurity Team ·

Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus (ToBRFV) continues to be one of the most serious biosecurity threats facing Australian protected-cropping tomato production. With detections continuing in trading partner countries through 2024 and 2025, and active surveillance ongoing in Australia, growers and propagators alike need to maintain the highest standards of hygiene and seed sourcing.

Why ToBRFV Is Different

ToBRFV is unlike many other plant viruses for one critical reason: it's extremely stable and easily transmitted on contact. The virus persists on surfaces — including hands, tools, clothing, seed coats, and packaging — for weeks or months under typical glasshouse conditions. Once it gets into a production system, eradication is extraordinarily difficult.

The symptoms — brown rugose (wrinkled) patches on fruit, foliar mosaic, and yield losses of 30-70% — make affected fruit unmarketable. There is currently no effective chemical control; management is entirely a matter of exclusion, sanitation, and resistant varieties.

What's Happening in Australia

To date, Australia remains free of ToBRFV. The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) maintains strict import conditions on tomato and capsicum seed, including:

  • Mandatory testing of imported seed lots
  • Phytosanitary certification requirements from exporting countries
  • Active surveillance programs in commercial production areas

Hort Innovation, AUSVEG, and state biosecurity agencies have been running ongoing awareness campaigns for protected-cropping operations. The ToBRFV National Diagnostic Standard is now in place, supporting rapid testing if symptoms appear.

What Yield Australia Does

As a seedling supplier, we sit upstream of every protected-cropping operation we service — which means we take our biosecurity obligations extremely seriously:

  • Seed sourcing from accredited suppliers with documented ToBRFV testing
  • Strict propagation hygiene — sanitation of trays, benches, tools, and personnel
  • Separate handling areas for solanaceous crops where appropriate
  • Visitor and staff protocols — including foot baths, hand sanitation, and tray-level traceability
  • Resistant variety options — where commercial ToBRFV-resistant lines are available, we can propagate them on request

What Growers Should Be Doing

  1. Source seedlings only from reputable, biosecurity-aware nurseries — Ask your propagator about their seed sourcing and hygiene protocols. If they can't answer in detail, that's a red flag
  2. Implement strict farm-gate hygiene — Limit visitor access to production areas, provide PPE, and document movements
  3. Train your team — Everyone touching plants should know what ToBRFV symptoms look like and what to do if they see them
  4. Report suspect symptoms immediately — Call the Exotic Plant Pest Hotline on 1800 084 881
  5. Consider resistant varieties — Several commercial ToBRFV-tolerant or resistant lines are now available; talk to your seed company and propagator

The Bottom Line

Biosecurity isn't a tick-box exercise — it's the difference between a viable industry and a wiped-out one. The Australian protected-cropping industry is currently in a strong position because of the collective effort across DAFF, state agencies, seed companies, nurseries, and growers. Maintaining that position requires every link in the chain to keep doing their job.

If you'd like to discuss your seedling program or our biosecurity protocols in detail, please get in touch.

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