Cases of deliberate contamination of the fruit with sewing needles occurred first in Queensland but recently stores in New England have also been affected, including Guyra and Armidale.

In Glen Innes, there have been no instances of contamination but the owner of The Super Strawberry, Cecily Tarrant, is taking steps to make sure the general cloud over the industry doesn’t affect her trade.

She grows her own strawberries from October through the Summer and relies on bought in supplies over the winter so the current stock on sale are from suppliers.

She said that the people she uses are known to her and trusted by her.

“We’ve been her for 47 years and we have established relationships in some cases over 25 years,” she said.

“We know the guys that are handling our strawberries.

“It’s nasty but we need to keep it in perspective.”

Despite the on-going difficulties for the industry as a whole, she said trade at the Super Strawberry had been brisk.

She planned special offers over the coming weekend to maintain the flow of customers.

She said she thought the perpetrator (or perpetrators) was “mentally disturbed” and his or her actions were “extremely nasty”.

So far, NSW Police have received more than 20 reports of contaminated strawberries. Each item has been kept for scientific examination.

Police are urging anyone who discovers a contaminated product to take the punnet to their local police station immediately.