Fly in north no threat

Alan Pollard, Hastings-based chief executive of Pipfruit NZ.

So long as it stays north of the Bombay Hills and decides not to make a home in the country, the queensland fruit fly is not a serious threat to Hawke's Bay's huge horticultural industry.

But such is the value of the industry and the inherent risk of insurgence by such pests as the fruit fly, be it queensland or mediterranean, or the brown marmorated stink bug from the US, Hawke's Bay is a big player in keeping watch and making sure that what are almost out-of-control problems in other parts of the globe are not manifested within our own borders.

The northern region has had three alerts in the past 13 months. The alert in Auckland, with a 5th fly found on Tuesday after the finding of numerous larvae, is the biggest since 1996, and the eighth since 1989.

Consequently, border control, including sniffer dogs at Auckland Airport, has been stepped-up.

Pipfruit NZ Hastings-based chief executive Alan Pollard says there is already "robust" surveillance control at Napier Port - the most likely point of entry other than individual carrying of infested fruit from the alert area, from which such movement is currently banned.

Mr Pollard, with PNZ, Kiwifruit NZ and the government parties to a Government Industry Agreement to oversee such alerts, is in touch with the Auckland situation daily, to help prevent any impact on Hawke's Bay's pivotal role in the $4 billion horticultural industry.

"The great thing," he said yesterday, "is that this is a very localised breeding population in a residential area. Realistically, it's a long way from a recognised growing area."

In Australia, control of the fruit fly had been "a struggle for years," he said. "In some areas they've virtually given up."

But in New Zealand, precautions are well-established. Mr Pollard says that along with keeping overseas markets informed of developments the response internationally has been good and there has been no suggestion that any of the countries will put embargoes on our fruit and produce.

The fruit fly risk is nothing new in Hawke's Bay. In October 1906 it was reported that the mediterranean variety had been found in a consignment of oranges from Auckland.

The Hawke's Bay Fruitgrowers Association at the time blamed lax regulations, and called on the Government to be much more vigilant with oranges in the north, in Auckland because of a climate conducive to the pest breeding, and in the Whangarei area where oranges were grown.

A meeting called for prohibition of shipment of oranges from Whangarei until all danger of the fruitfly establishing a foothold in the "colony" had passed.

They wanted the "department" to dispatch an inspector to the region to visit premises where "maggots" had been found in fruit.

The last scares in New Zealand were in January and April last year. Two male flies were found in traps in Whangarei, but that did not disrupt life or horticulture in Hawke's Bay.

A Ministry of Primary Industries spokesman said then that, while about 100 people were involved in biosecurity operations which cost well over $1.5 million it was done without depleting resources needed in the Bay.

Two quarantine inspectors are permanently based in the Bay, where the higher-risk areas are considered to be cargo ships and cruise line passengers at Napier Port and small jets flying into Hawke's Bay from overseas.

Horticulture NZ Hawke's Bay-based director and former Fruitgrowers HB president Leon Stallard said that for orchardists and growers it's a "very much wait-and-see" and "business as usual."

"There have been incursions in the past. They've been eradicated."