Kiwifruit growers have resoundingly backed a $50m relief package to help the industry fight PSA.

Growers met around the country on Friday to discuss the support deal, which will see the Government and the industry put up $25m each.

Zespri Director of Corporate and Grower Services Carol Ward says the grower support is encouraging.

“There was an extensive amount of consultation with kiwifruit growers around the country on Thursday and Friday, and we estimate that we spoke face to face wit approximately 75 per cent of growers around the country.

"That’s fantastic consultation levels, and the overwhelming majority of them voted in favour of the proposal, it was strongly supported."

Carol Ward says the funding will go a long way to curbing PSA’s spread.

"We certainly anticipate that it would cover approximately 700 hectares of vine removal or cutback.

"Whether that’s enough, only time will tell but at that point it was our best estimate, and we’re by no means at that level of infection yet, we’re still going through the results of the tests.”

POLLEN TESTS POSITIVE

Meanwhile work is continuing into the extent of PSA infection in pollen, imported to New Zealand to aid in kiwifruit pollination.

Several samples MAF Biosecurity has taken from the Bay of Plenty and South Auckland have tested  positive for PSA.

But MAF Biosecurity Response Manager Doug Lush says there’s no evidence to link artificial pollination with the spread of PSA.

“The literature doesn’t talk about bacteria being spread by pollen, so there’s nothing in the literature suggesting that that could occur.

"However, because we have found this bacteria in some of our pollen samples, we thought it was important to let industry know that information."

Mr Lush says the tested samples pre-date the PSA outbreak.

"It’s still very unclear about what’s happening, I think it’s a very troublesome time for the industry. There’s a lot of uncertainty about what the kiwifruit industry should be doing.

"It does appear that this PSA infection has been here in New Zealand for a number of years already.”

Federated Farmers is calling for a halt on artificial pollination until the product can be guaranteed as free of the PSA bacteria.

Feds Biosecurity spokesperson John Hartnell says officials need to be certain the practice isn’t making the situation worse.

“The primary call is to do with the imported product that has come into the country and the concern that that product has not been tested correctly for a range of viruses, bacteria and fungal spores, not just relating to the kiwifruit industry, but relating to other industries as well.”