Concern after destructive pest found in imported palm trees
Dozens of palm trees planted at government projects in Ma On Shan and near the Disney site on Lantau are infested with a destructive pest, sparking concerns over the policy of inspecting plants imported from the mainland.
The Environment, Transport and Works Bureau confirmed it was told last month by the contractor of a highway in Ma On Shan that 52 Canary Island date palms had been infested with the red palm weevil.
A total of 41 trees would be removed and the rest were under pest control and supervision by the contractor. The plants were imported into Hong Kong between June and December last year.
The bureau also confirmed that 16 Canary Island date palms had been removed from Penny's Bay last month after the same pests were found.
The pest, which lays larvae that eat the pulp of trees, has caused serious damage to palm, coconut and other crops in the Middle East and the Mediterranean since it started spreading west from Asia and Melanesia in the 1980s.
The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said the plants used in both projects came from Australia, but were kept in nurseries in Guangdong before being imported into Hong Kong.
The bureau said the palms were imported by different contractors - China Harbour Engineering (Group) for Ma On Shan and China State Construction Engineering (Hong Kong) for Penny's Bay.
But the bureau was not sure whether the palms came from the same source on the mainland. Despite repeated inquiries, both contractors refused to name their mainland suppliers. China State Construction Engineering said the plants came from Australia. It was not sure whether they had been sent to Hong Kong via Guangdong.
Jim Chi-yung, a professor of geography at the University of Hong Kong, warned there was a high risk of foreign plants carrying non-indigenous pests into Hong Kong without stringent quarantine measures. Professor Jim said red palm weevils were not common in Hong Kong.
'A new environment always favours the breeding of non-indigenous pests when the new places may not have their natural enemies, such as other pest species or birds,' he said.
He said it was common for traders to bypass quarantine policies by importing the plants from overseas to the mainland before re-exporting them to Hong Kong, and quarantine measures on the Hong Kong side were lax because the flow of goods was so busy.
The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said plants and soil from the mainland were exempted from importation documentation.
