Kiwi fruit growers are welcoming an investigation into how the deadly kiwifruit vine killing disease, Psa first got into New Zealand.

The Ministry of Agriculture has commissioned a PSA – pathway tracing report, which investigates possible entry points for the disease before its discovery in an orchard in Te Puke, in 2010.

As well as the PSA-pathway tracing report there will be an independent review of the rules applied to pollen imports from Chile and China, from 2008 to 2010.

Kiwi Fruit Vine Health is pleased with the decision for an independent review.

KVH’s General Manager John Burke says people deserve to know what really happened, and to be better prepared if another situation ever arises.

“We see it as more of progress report because they’ve identified several pathways in the report but no real smoking gun; and we don’t expect there to be a smoking gun to speak.

"We feel as time goes on we may bring up more clues that can be re-visited as part of that report.”

MAF was confident that it had strict rules in place covering pollen imports.

But MAF is now saying there are indications that pollen imports were a possible entry point for the disease.

MAF states that at the time there was no research proving that pollen was able to spread PSA. However Australia bans imports of pollen.   

“Well that’s our concern. We’re not necessarily saying that pollen was the pathway for the incursion, but we are concerned about the processes that lead MAF to approve the importation of pollen. So that’s why we requested a review by MAF and the minister has gratefully gone ahead with that which we are pleased with.”

In recent years New Zealand has used 77kg of imported Chilean pollen on orchards around the country, and 2kg from China, which was used for laboratory testing.

DNA Testing by MAF on pollen imported from Chile  in 2010, after the first cases of PSA hit New Zealand, turned up a single positive result for the bacterial disease.

Mr Burke says possible gaps in New Zealand’s Bio Security rules and regulations need to be closed, which is why KVH is supporting the Government Industry Agreement. 

“We owe it on ourselves and the primary sector to make sure that our processes are as robust as they can be. We feel that with GIA that needs to allow for that so there is active involvement by industry and with MAF Bio security and make sure our boarders are as protected as possible.”