Farm manager, Jason Plant said the farm consisted of 105 hectares of fruit bearing citrus and another 25 hectares of non-bearing trees.

He said the last three to four years, with Chinese demand increasing, had certainly improved farm returns, but had also sharpened the focus on controlling the weevil issue.

“The biggest problem is rose weevil egg masses are laid under the calyx and if Chinese importers get wind of it, they’re simply going to reject our fruit.

“Trying to make sure we haven't got weevil in the property that can lay eggs is our number one priority.”

Mr Plant said a number of strategies had been implemented to address any Chinese concerns, with orchard hygiene ‘front and centre’.

“Trees are all skirted up, which we like to do as part of our pruning program anyway.

“In the past we've been doing trunk band sprays which was stopping any predatory movement up and down the trunk. And while the move helped get us into the Chinese market - it was an expensive exercise, given the amount of time it took to get across the entire orchard.”

Mr Plant said last season he was keen to have a look at Exirel insecticide following its’ commercial release. “When Exirel came on to the market it seemed to be a quality product and so far appears to have worked really well on our new registered KCT patches.”

Exirel is also registered for the control of Kelly’s citrus thrips and light brown apple moth which can affect the fruit earlier in the season. “We have a lot of issues with thrips in lemons, Mr Plant said, particularly with the navel varieties.

He said next year they would look at using Exirel twice across the course of the season. “Being a new product, we’re naturally cautious, and would possibly look at doing two sprays next year. One earlier spray around calyx closure, which would help with thrip containment and then probably another one in February, in any high pressure patches.”

One of the major advantages with Exirel, he says was the savings in time. “It is a one pass thing, twice a year.  It might take us 40 hours to spray the property whereas before it was taking anywhere up to 180 hours, doing trunk sprays. Over the course of a season it can be a massive time saver."

Mr Plant said their program also included regular monitoring by entomologists who then advised on what insects were becoming an issue.