Psa unlikely to have major impact on Seeka

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Seeka Kiwifruit Industries says about 3 per cent of its total 2010 supply area of 2737 hectares is infected with the aggressive Italian PSA vine infection.

The listed Te Puke kiwifruit packer's chief executive Michael Franks said nine orchards covering approximately 88ha have been confirmed with the Italian isolate of PSA. Based on last season's production, this equates to approximately 880,000 supplied trays out of Seeka's pack out of 23.9 million class one trays.

Across the entire kiwifruit industry, 122 orchards have been confirmed to date as having PSA.

In approximately 19 cases this is the Asian-type isolate, with another 27 confirmed as the Italian form.

The latter covers about 192 canopy hectares and are located within a defined zone within the Te Puke area.

Franks said none of Seeka's long term lease orchards are in the current Italian isolate zone.

"We are working with the Kiwifruit Vine Health Authority to implement an aggressive containment strategy in response to the detection of the Italian isolate on our suppliers' orchards," he said.

"This strategy essentially sees an ongoing detection process, and vines or orchard removal where the Italian isolate of PSA is confirmed, with a commensurate compensation package paid to the orchardist."

Seeka's share price has remained at $3 since the New Year.