No word on apple access until after the Olympics

Australian officials deny that they are holding back announcing the end of a 75-year-old ban on New Zealand apple imports until after the Sydney Olympics to avoid a grower backlash.

They say a long-awaited draft risk assessement may not now be released until October. Growers on both sides of the Tasman have been waiting for it since March.

The Melbourne-based Weekly Herald reported last week that the ban had been lifted, sparking fears among Australian growers that their orchards could be affected by New Zealand fireblight.

A spokesman for the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (Aqis), which is conducting the analysis, said a date had still not been set for the report's release.

That was confirmed by Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Australia (Affa), the Government department that includes Aqis.

Affa said the draft assessment had not been finalised and would not be completed until after the Olympic Games, which end on October 1.

A consultation period would follow before a final decision was made.

Affa added that the analysis was being conducted "on purely scientific and technical grounds."

The last comment is apparently in response to criticism that the Australian Government was placing more importance on trade imperatives than on science-based quarantine.

Some New Zealanders have alleged that previous decisions on the issue related to non-tariff trade barriers.

The Weekly Herald, a newspaper with a readership mainly in rural Victoria, said Australian Agriculture Minister Warren Truss had been informed of the decision, which Aqis wanted released as soon as possible.

But industry leaders had threatened a fierce political campaign if the report was made public before the Olympics began on September 15.

They were concerned that attention on the Sydney Games would effectively reduce the 60-day consultation period.

Australian growers are staunchly opposed to New Zealand imports, arguing that fireblight could devastate their industry.

The Weekly Herald said that Aqis, in the draft assessment, had imposed only minimal quarantine conditions on New Zealand growers.

Rather than requiring broad regions or even entire farms to be free of fireblight, apples on orchard blocks without the disease would be able to be exported, the paper said.

The size of the buffer zone separating "clean" from infected blocks was also understood to be minimal.

"The decision stands in stark contrast to Aqis' 1997 decision to retain a ban on New Zealand apples because of the unacceptable risk of importing fireblight," the paper said.

- NZPA