Jim Douglas: Plant import rules blocking growth

The celebration of 100 years of kiwifruit production in New Zealand is a time to reflect as well as rejoice. The kiwifruit industry should feel justifiably proud that annual export earnings are approaching $1 billion, and that the industry is calculated to be worth $2 billion annually to the Bay of Plenty.

This inner glow of achievement, however, should be viewed in the light of today's regulations on plant introduction and the effect they would have had on the introduction of kiwifruit.

The kiwifruit story began when Isabel Fraser, a Wanganui school principal, brought seed back from China in 1905. If she was arriving from China today, she would be asked to declare any seeds.

She knew her seed as Ichang gooseberry seed. Today's quarantine officer would say to her: "I'm sorry, I need to know the scientific name of your seeds, otherwise I'll have to confiscate them."

Imagine that Fraser rummaged around in her luggage and found the scientific name for Chinese gooseberry. It's Actinidia deliciosa.

"Just a minute," the quarantine officer would reply. "I need to check the national biosecurity list ...

"Unfortunately we have no Actinidia species on our list and it can't come into New Zealand unless it is on the list. I'll have to destroy your seed."

"How do I get Actinidia onto the biosecurity list?" Fraser could ask.

"You have to apply to the Environmental Risk Management Authority, and have an environmental risk assessment completed," the quarantine officer would tell her.
At this point most travellers would give up their precious seed and continue on their disillusioned way.

If Fraser really wanted to import her Chinese gooseberry seed and applied to the risk management authority to have an assessment done, she would be shocked to find that it was going to cost her $30,000 for a full assessment that would enable the seed to be grown anywhere in New Zealand.

Unfortunately for Fraser, the assessment would show kiwifruit was a rampant growing vine, a perceived weed, and a likely environmental threat to our native forests.

Under today's regulatory environment, it is probable the kiwifruit industry would never have got started. The regulations would not have allowed the seed into New Zealand in the first place.

Environmental protection is totally out of balance with the need to introduce new plant species for economic development, beautification or conservation. Yet, like the kiwifruit industry, the rest of horticultural, farming, and forestry industries, the backbone of the economy, are based almost exclusively on exotic species.

Sure, some serious weed species have been introduced in the past but they constitute a very low percentage of our flora, and most were introduced unwittingly long ago, before seed importation standards were set to minimise weed-seed introduction.

Before the introduction of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act in 1998, there was a steady introduction of new plant species. An estimated 500 to 600 new species were brought in each year. Since 1998, only two new species have been introduced for public release. Both are species of Australian grass tree.

The exorbitant cost of the environmental assessment has successfully stopped the regular flow. This draconian regulation is likely to do great damage to the development of New Zealand. New species bring a multitude of opportunities for plant-based industries as market requirements change.

It is difficult to understand why the Government has put this plant-introduction barrier in place. Ordinary, everyday plants have been locked into the 1998 legislation covering new organisms, alongside genetically modified plants, new animals, insects and microbes.

For some reason, the regulators consider that all introduced plants are a threat to our native flora, when clearly they are not.

This Luddite approach may be appropriate for our national parks and native tree enthusiasts, but our economy is based on exotic plants, and development of new crops is necessary to continued economic growth and diversification.

To put this in perspective, there are about 2450 native plant species in New Zealand, about 27,000 exotic plants on the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry biosecurity list, and estimates of up to 40,000 plant species all told in New Zealand (the MAF biosecurity list is incomplete).

The world is estimated to have about 420,000 plant species. The high cost of Government regulation is preventing the introduction of plant species that are not on the biosecurity list.

Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing which plant species will be needed in future, or whether they can be grown here successfully. You don't know until you try.

Government regulation is preventing New Zealanders from following their dreams and using their entrepreneurial skills to add to the economic base. It is preventing this country from being used as a haven for valuable plants threatened with extinction in other parts of the world.

One doesn't know how many Isabel Frasers have been stopped at our borders and prevented from beginning another billion-dollar industry. Time will highlight the short-sightedness of the current regulations on plant introduction.

There is a solution. We should change the biosecurity regulations to list known undesirable plants that need environmental assessment before entering New Zealand but allow free entry of all other plants that people want (except genetically modified ones), provided they meet disease and pest biosecurity requirements.

* Jim Douglas is a plant scientist with Crop and Food Research.