Kiwifruit industry on tenterhooks

Sungold kiwifruit, commercialised in 2010, were hailed as the key to the industry's recovery from Psa.

The fungal disease Psa, which dealt a near-body blow to the kiwifruit industry in 2010, has not been defeated, according to Kiwifruit Claim chairman John Cameron.

In fact it represented an ongoing threat to the viability of the industry, he said, and could "flare up" again as it evolved and became immune to current pest management practices.

"What many don't realise, is that this thing could well decimate us again. We still have Psa on our vines. Once it arrived here, no one was ever going to be able to completely get rid of it," he said.

Te Puke orchard owner Bob Burt described the disease as a ticking time bomb, adding that in addition to the significant costs of management, growers were experiencing much lower production levels.

"Psa has not and never will be eradicated. Resistance to primary control chemicals is growing, and I believe the likelihood of further Psa outbreaks is high," he said.

"I constantly live with the fear that Psa will come back and devastate the orchard again.

It is a frightening disease. As growers, we do everything possible to ensure that our vines are in the best possible health so that they can resist, but it could very easily genetically mutate, and what we are currently using as pest management practices won't be effective at all."

The "deadly disease" had the potential to destroy once again, he added. And while over the last few years symptoms had, at great cost, largely remained under control during mild weather, it continued to cause significant losses for many growers.

"The country may never fully know what the real impact of Psa has been or will be in the future," he said.

Many growers had been completely wiped out in 2010. With no crops and plummeting values on their orchards, they lost their businesses and were forced to sell at heavily discounted prices. Others survived, but suffered loss of income for many years and took on huge debts to replant.

Seven years later, those growers who had survived were still dealing with every season.
This year alone Mr Burt's orchard had produced 5000 fewer green kiwifruit trays per hectare, a drop of around 40 per cent, because the vines were diseased.

"When you combine this with the ongoing expense of managing the disease, it makes you wonder how much it's really costing our country," he said.

"There's a lot of commentary around how the industry has fully recovered from the effects of Psa, but how can we ever fully recover when it is still here and is a constant threat to our livelihoods?

"Overcoming Psa is proving to be a much bigger challenge than anyone ever anticipated. This was a known pest, and it should never have been allowed into New Zealand," he added.

The Kiwifruit Claim represents 212 growers who are seeking legal redress from the Government and the Ministry of Primary Industries for "obvious negligence" in the High Court at Wellington.