The PSA disease outbreak that that cost the kiwifruit industry hundreds of millions of dollars was preventable and started from a single site near Te Puke, a court has been told.
The class action suit by the 212 members of Kiwifruit Claim against the Ministry for Primary Industries got under way in the High Court at Wellington on Monday.
The growers say the vine-killing bacteria, Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae, cost the industry more than $800 million and officials were negligent in allowing it in.
Lawyer Davey Salmon opened by showing the court maps of where PSA disease broke out, at an orchard near Te Puke in 2010.
"This was ground zero," he said.