Wagga Fruit Supply manager Robert Papasidero said farmers did not deserve to lose entire crops and their livelihood because of the foolish actions of a few. 

The push to support strawberry growers comes after the Department of Education this week confirmed a Yanco Public School student had found needle in the fruit she had taken to school.

A spokesman said the Leeton Shire girl noticed the sewing tool in a strawberry she was about to eat. The student was not hurt and authorities are investigating the incident. 

The needle was one of more than 20 that have been found in NSW produce across the week, with the state’s police believing copy-cat criminal to be involved. 

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Mr Papasidero said the simple solution was to wash and cut any fruit before eating.

He said a blanket fear of purchasing strawberries would only hurt NSW farmers, whose crops were yet to be sold.

Mr Papasidero said they had “done nothing wrong” and did not deserve to lose their livelihoods. 

“We shouldn’t cave,” Mr Papasidero said. “People need to keep buying the strawberries.” 

One of a four-generation family-run business, he said it was easy for bigger supermarket chains to dump a day’s produce to “clear stock”, but it was different for local distributors, who had to “look farmers in the eye”. 

Mr Papasidero said the strawberry tampering nightmare was similar to the listeria contamination in Griffith rock melons this year, which had put a large strain on the entire industry. 

“We know these farmers,” he said. “They all work hard and they don’t get paid until their fruit sells … no one wants to work for months and not get paid.”

He said if he got a busload of concerned shoppers together, he would go as far as to drive them to the airport so they could take their punnets through the metal detector. 

Turvey FoodWorks manager Gavin Mather urged shoppers and cake decorators to just wash their strawberries and cut them sideways. 

Mr Mather too said strawberries sales were doing well despite Tuesday’s discovery. 

He attributed this to a social media push to keep buying the fruit, despite the Queensland sabotage scandal. 

Mr Mather said farmers would have a two-month window to distribute their produce in coming months. If sales were down and suppliers did not stock their strawberries, he said they would not be paid for a year’s efforts. 

He said Coles and Woolworths were back in “full swing” after they stopped trading the Queensland fruit for a day.  

The NSW government on Wednesday announced it would offer a reward for information leading to the conviction of those responsible for fruit contamination across the state. 

This is in addition to the bounty Queensland Police have placed on the head of the lead culprit. 

The was also community reminded deliberately contaminating food was a criminal offence and a threat to public safety.

In NSW, the maximum penalty for the offence is 10 years in jail.

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