Applegrowers angry at bug's bad press

Peter Beaven

New Zealand applegrowers have reacted angrily to suggestions from their Australian counterparts that the discovery that a native "wheat bug" has been spread to Europe signals risks for Australia.

"The finding of the New Zealand wheat bug [Nysius huttoni] in Holland and Belgium does not increase the likelihood the insect will be found in apple consignments to Australia," Pipfruit NZ chief executive Peter Beaven said.

He suggested that claims made in scientific papers in Holland last year that the bug may have hitched a ride from New Zealand to the port of Antwerp in Belgium on packaged fruit were wrong. The wheat bug - previously not known outside New Zealand - has been found over the past three years in the areas of Belgium and Holland near Antwerp.

"Our analysis points to the high probability that the wheat bugs found were not from apple exports at all," Beaven said.

"Wheat bug can only survive for short periods in cool-storage, and would not survive the journey to Europe."

He suggested the incursion probably occurred on non-chilled transport, such as another commodity or on travellers or their baggage.

Wheat bug - a pest of some cereal crops - was not a common "passenger" in apple consignments and posed no risk in chilled transport, he said.

Export apples were washed, sorted and graded before packing and an insect such as wheat bug would be detected and removed in this process.

"Concerns raised by the Australian apple industry are typical of the misinformation they have peddled throughout this whole access issue," Beaven said. "It demonstrates the level they will stoop to in order to avoid competition in their own domestic market."

He said Biosecurity Australia had already addressed wheat bug in its draft import risk assessment, with the help of significant information provided by Biosecurity New Zealand.

- NZPA