BALLARAT potato farmers say they face ruin if diseased potatoes from New Zealand are imported into the country.
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And if the diseased potatoes reach Australian borders, many farmers feel it will be the last straw after an already troubled year.
The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has released a draft report proposing fresh New Zealand potatoes be allowed into the country.
However, there are fears New Zealand potatoes can be infected with the deadly Zebra Chip disease or carry potato psyllid insects.
A group of about 20 Ballarat farmers has met with the National Senator for Victoria Bridget McKenzie, Member for Western Victoria David O'Brien and the national peak industry body AUSVEG to voice their concern over the proposal.
The furious farmers met at Mick Frawley's farm in Bungaree.
McCain Foods Growers Association chairman Dominic Prendergast, a potato farmer from Clarke's Hill, said other farmers could lose their crops if the imports got the green light.
"If it goes through we're stuffed, that's the long and the short of it," he said.
"The Zebra Chip virus is a real threat beacuse we are processing growers and when it cooks the chip, it turns them black."
Farmers in the Ballarat region are already struggling after McCain Foods cut back the amount of product it was sourcing from local suppliers.
Mollongghip farmer Norm Suckling said he could not understand why the decision would be made to import potatoes when the risk of spreading the disease was so real.
He said it would be cheaper for companies to import crops, but the overall financial benefit was far outweighed by the risk to crops.
"There might be a 99 per cent chance of not getting this disease but there is not a 100 per cent chance," Mr Suckling said.
"Why would they take the risk of bringing in a disease we haven't got?
"We have seen instances with other diseases before from New Zealand hurt Australian crops.
"Why go through that same risk again?"
Senator McKenzie criticised DAFF of using three-year-old standards to judge if it was safe to allow the potatoes in Australia, which were outdated and unsafe and posed a genuine threat to the industry.
