Victoria interstate potato trade restarted

The first consignments of potatoes to leave Victoria since the discovery of potato cyst nematode last year have been trucked to Canberra and Brisbane.

Interstate trade was halted after the discovery of potato cyst nematode on a property at Thorpdale, the centre of one of Victoria's major growing regions for seed and eating potatoes, three months ago.

It has taken more than 280,000 negative soil samples, countless meetings of quarantine authorities from four states, hours of inspections and reams of paperwork to end the ban imposed on growers within a 20km radius of the infected paddock.