A major threat to banana plantations reportedly caused by bacteria became the focus of discussions at a scientific conference in the Northern Territory's capital Darwin on Tuesday.

Said to have devastated banana crops in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Africa, three very similar bacteria have "spread very quickly, hundreds of kilometers in a year," according to an Australian plant pathologist quoted by the Northern Territory News in Darwin.

The blood disease bacterium from Indonesia, bugtok bacterium from the Philippines and xanthomonas bacterium from Africa were discussed at the conference hosted jointly by Asian and Australasian Plant Pathology Societies.

Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service plant pathologist Richard Davis said the bacteria were some of the biggest threats to bananas and it was the first time scientists from these countries had come together to discuss research findings.

"They have been absolutely devastating in these other countries," Mr Davis was quoted by Northern Territory News as saying.

"They have spread very quickly, hundreds of kilometres in a year. In a new outbreak it was as if someone dropped a biological bomb that kills only bananas," Mr Davis was reported as saying.

The event was attended by some 400 scientists from Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Africa.

In Australia, according to previous media reports, the price of bananas has soared following the devastation caused by Cyclone Yasi's strong winds and heavy rains on plantations in Queensland in February 2011.

Previously, in the 1990s a fungus outbreak virtually wiped out a flourishing banana industry at the time in the Northern Territory. Some farms near Darwin are now being planted to genetically modified bananas to resuscitate the industry.

Banana prices in Australia have risen in recent weeks to nearly A$15 per kilogramme in Sydney, Adelaide and Hobart, nearly A$13 a kg in Melbourne, and close to A$12 in Brisbane, market surveys indicated.

Banana producing countries have been seeking permits to export their fruits to Australia, but the government has sustained a ban on imports.