Federated Farmers is welcoming news that MAF Biosecurity has intercepted a consignment of fruit imported from Queensland containing fruit fly eggs. 

John Hartnell, Federated Farmers biosecurity spokesperson, says Queensland fruit fly is a serious threat to fruit crops, warning it would have dire consequences for New Zealand’s multi-billion horticultural industry.

In the mid-1990s, Mediterranean fruit fly saw New Zealand fruit locked out of Asian countries for a year.