Three kiwifruit orchards have now been confirmed as having the vine disease PSA, and dozens more are under investigation as a widespread spraying programme is delayed.

MAF officials planned to use a copper-based spray to try and limit the spread of the disease, which has now been confirmed at three orchards in the Te Puke area, and seen a further two quarantined. 

MAF Bio-security deputy director-general Barry O’Neil says the copper spray poses the risk of defoliation. 

“We were keen to pursue that and then the technical concerns came through about whether or not products at certain rates could cause defoliation. The status with copper spraying is we hope to be able to proceed to spray the worst parts of the two initial effected orchards either later [Thursday] afternoon or first thing [Friday] morning.”

Mr O’Neil says it may be several days before the extent of the outbreak is known.

“I think things will start to become clearer over the course of the next 24, or 48 hours. So as the [PSA test] results on Saturday and Sunday come in it will put us into a clearer position as to whether or not we are dealing  still with an organism they may possibly be able to be eradicated.”

Zespri is continuing to work with kiwifruit growers sending in more photos of suspected PSA outbreaks.

Marketing Manager Carol Ward says the industry still has plenty of work ahead of it to get on top of the situation.

“There’s a response team which is being put together by staff from AgFirst, but also we’ve had fantastic support from all the post-harvest facilities here in the kiwifruit industry.

"Approximately 40 people are going to be taking random samples of kiwifruit leaves and foliage from around the country so we can try and determine how widespread PSA might be in New Zealand.”

A total of 75 orchards have indicated possible PSA symptoms. 20 are currently being investigated.

T&G IN THE CLEAR

Fruit and vegetable exporter Turners & Growers is reporting no problems on its kiwifruit orchards around the country.

Managing Director Jeff Wesley says all their orchards have been checked, and cleared.

“We checked all our Enza kiwifruit orchards, they’re different varieties to Zespri’s, so far they’re all clean. Most of them are up North but we have a few orchards in the Bay of Plenty, where Te Puke is, where all the problems are, but we’ve checked all our orchards there and they’re fine at this point.”