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Japan: Is this the end for Ome plum industry?

A glance at the map - to anyone who speaks Japanese - would make it clear what goes on in the area. Baigo means plum village, it is in Ome, which means unripe plums. Plums from here are well known and, every year, people gather to view the blossoms before the famous fruit begins to develop.

However, all is not well. The Suzukis, who have an orchard 148 trees strong, are an example of this. They have recently heard the news that their orchard is to be felled completely, to help prevent the spread of plum pox virus. This year's harvest, just commenced, will be the last for these trees.

"I grew up with these trees, and the money that my father earned from them put me through school," says Nobuo Suzuki. Several of the trees on the estate are nearly a century old. "It will be hard to look on when the cutters finally come."

The outbreak of plum pox virus in Ome was first seen in 2009 and now officials at the Ministry of Agriculture have determined that the whole region is infected wiht the disease and the trees have to go.

"The best thing to do is cut down every plum tree to make sure the virus is completely eradicated and then replant after three years," says Toru Tomita of Ome city’s forestry section.

Growers like the Suzukis however, are concerned that the replanting will not happen. Over the years the region has become part of the commuter belt for Tokyo and has a growing tourist industry as people come to walk in the wooded hills. The fruit trees are not as valued as they once were. The number of commercial growers have been falling in recent years.

From the growers’ perspective, the planned response to the outbreak is a worrying halfway house between their needs and the imperatives of tourism. Officials will determine on a tree-by-tree basis which plums are commercial and which are decorative. If a random sampling of a commercial orchard finds that 10 percent of the trees are infected, then the entire site has to be cleared, with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government buying each tree on a varying price scale. Decorative trees, meanwhile, will be spared as far as is possible, in order to preserve the landscape.

"That doesn’t really guarantee that the virus is gone, does it?" says Suzuki, citing practice in Europe, where the disease originated. If an infection is suspected on a single tree there, he says, all other trees within 800 meters are immediately taken down. "We’re not ready to be drastic. What we’re doing here is prolonging the problem."

A few growers have already levelled their own orchards in anticipation of the imposed felling and built apartments on their formed farmland.

Source: ajw.asahi.com

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