Following a meeting of 150 Bay of Plenty growers over biosecurity failures leading to the Psa outbreak in their region, Zespri director Ray Sharp dismissed their concerns as “disappointment”.

At the meeting, held in Te Puke last Friday (17) the meeting called for the Government to declare the outbreak an adverse event, and to undertake an inquiry into New Zealand’s biosecurity standards.

In response, Zespri director Ray Sharp said, “You’ve got a large industry with 2500 growers. You’ll always have some people who are disappointed for their own reasons.”

So far combating the outbreak has cost $36 million, half of which has been provided by the kiwifruit industry and half by the Government. To date 30% of orchards are affected, and the supply of gold kiwifruit has been eliminated.

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