Banana growers unaffected by a destructive fungal disease are being asked to chip in to help keep infected farms afloat.
The Australian Banana Growers' Council spruiked the idea of a voluntary levy at three industry meetings in Queensland this week.
The payment would see one cent for every kilogram of fruit marketed being redirected to the North Queensland farms struck down with the Panama Tropical Race 4 disease (TR4).
So far, two plantations have tested positive for the ruinous fungus.
Most of the 400-odd growers who attended the meetings were "generally supportive", ABGC chair Doug Phillips said.
The industry body is also proposing the introduction of minimum-standards protocols that could allow the infected farms to keep operating.
It comes as two international experts prepare to fly to Australia an industry conference in June.
Professor Altus Viljoen from South Africa and Dr Chih-Ping Chao, Director of the Taiwan Banana Research Institute, will attend the Banana Industry Congress in Melbourne in June.
Both are specialists in Panama TR4, the soil-borne disease that wiped out the Northern Territory's banana industry in the 1990s.
Notably, it attacks the banana plant and not the fruit.
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