Spring could spell disaster to Northland kiwifruit growers with new growth highly vulnerable to the vine-killing Psa disease, says Northland Regional Council biosecurity senior programme manager Don McKenzie.
The region's growers have been battling to keep the disease, which has struck more than half the country's kiwifruit orchards, out ofNorthland. The Kiwifruit Vine Disease growers' group estimates that the immediate impact of the disease and the cost of responding to it will cost the industry up to $410 million over the next five years and as much as $885 million long-term when lost development is factored in.
Mr McKenzie said growers, acutely aware of "bud-burst peril", were pleading with all Northlanders to be extra vigilant and aware of how the smallest instance of carelessness could jeopardise an industry worth $36 million annually to Northland and employing more than 800 seasonal workers.
"The time when the disease shows up is when the new buds emerge and the vines start to put on fresh leaves," he said.
He said that while the disease had rampaged through orchards in the Te Puke area and hit crops in Tauranga, Franklin and Coromandel, "through a combination of good management, distance and luck it has not yet reached Northland".
