Shayne and Blaise Cini – Karden (Qld) Pty Ltd
For Shayne and Blaise Cini of Karden (Qld) Pty Ltd (trading as Edari Bananas), on-farm biosecurity is an insurance policy for themselves and for future generations. Their 220-acre banana farm borders the South Johnstone River, which is south of Innisfail in the town of Wangan.
As fourth-generation farmers, and second-generation banana growers, Edari Bananas’ eyes are firmly on farm succession and protecting their property from pests and diseases, such as Panama disease tropical race 4 (Panama TR4). With the detection of Panama TR4 in Queensland in 2015, they focused on things that could be done immediately to safeguard their farm by setting up signage, footbaths and designated entry points.
Due to their farm crossing 2 main roads, over a 3-year period they developed a strategy and plan to prevent Panama TR4, including:
- constructing 2 internal creek crossings to minimise road traffic
- designing and constructing 3 wash-down facilities at crossings within the property
- upgrading roads and installing new drainage pipes to mitigate flooding from other adjacent properties
- fencing around the entire property
- installing 3 boot spray facilities at access points.
While Panama TR4 remains contained to the Tully Valley, the efforts of Shayne, Blaise and their team demonstrate forward-thinking and preventative measures that go above and beyond what might be expected. Implementing on-farm biosecurity measures continues to be the best defence against Panama TR4 and a range of other pests and diseases.
With the future firmly in mind, Blaise developed a series of biosecurity training videos for staff inductions and as an ongoing resource for the team. The team contributed to a series of videos produced by Biosecurity Queensland and the Australian Banana Growers’ Council designed to target other growers, potential farm workers and visitors to their region. They also implemented a visitor register, signage (internal and external) and a feral pig management program to reduce environmental damage.
The effort Edari Bananas made on their Wangan farm and ensuring other growers and the broader community are better informed about biosecurity, demonstrates their ongoing commitment to the cause.
Shayne and Blaise Cini were nominated by Amy Spear from the Australian Banana Growers' Council.
Watch a video about their work
Introduction
This is the accessible text transcript of a 2024 Australian Biosecurity Awards winner video featuring Blaise and Shayne Cini.
Transcript
Blaise Cini: I'm Blaise Cini, and this is my husband, Shayne. We own and operate Edari Bananas, a banana farm in Innisfail, far north Queensland. We are the recipients of the Australian Biosecurity Award in the category of Farm Biosecurity Producer of the Year.
Shayne Cini: We're extremely grateful to be recognised for our on-farm biosecurity efforts. Biosecurity measures we have put in place and not only to protect our own operations from Panama tropical race 4, but to also reduce the spread of the soilborne fungal disease across the industry as a whole.
Blaise Cini: Panama TR4 could be considered the single largest long-term threat to the Australian banana industry, and we are proud to have been strong advocates of farm biosecurity to slow the spread of this devastating disease.
Shayne Cini: We would like to thank our nominators, the Australian Banana Growers Council, and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry for awarding Edari Bananas. And we would like to acknowledge the efforts of other growers within our industry.
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