A major Australian exporter has raised serious concerns after the Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce said it could take up to a year to resolve the trade suspension with Vietnam, website Abc.net.au reported. 

A representative of Costa, which markets a range of products including avocados, bananas and table grapes, reportedly said the industry could not afford to wait up to 12 months for a resolution.

Vietnam stopped issuing import permits for all Australian fresh fruit and vegetables from Jan. 1, citing fruit fly concerns.

"We have confidence that the minister is doing all he can to resolve this problem, but you can rest assured Vietnamese consumers will not hang around for 12 months waiting for Australia to sort out this problem," corporate affairs manager Michael Toby was quoted as saying.

"They will look for alternatives, including from our competitors, such as Chile and Peru.

"Losing the Vietnam market to such low cost countries would make it extremely difficult to not only regain a foothold in the market for this season, but potentially for many years to come, resulting in tens of millions of dollars of lost revenue for Victorian table grape growers."

A spokesperson for Joyce said the government was working with Vietnam to resolve the issue but warned it was 'important to be realistic and avoid raising false hope', according to Abc.net.au.

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