The kiwifruit industry is reeling with the virulent strain of PSA spreading like wildfire over the winter in the Bay of Plenty, and more worryingly, has now crossed the Papamoa hills into Matapihi.
And in more bad news for the sector, the virulent strain of the disease, PSA-v now appears to be spreading more aggressively than before.
There are now 170 orchards infected, with PSA-v, with 19 more orchards being infected in the last week alone.
Seeka Kiwifruit Industries chief executive Michael Franks, told Country 99TV the industry had banked on the PSA spread slowing over the winter, as it has done overseas. But New Zealand's warm winter means the spread has continued unabated.
“We had thought that in our understanding of the lifecycle of PSA from other countries that through the winter the disease would calm down, and we wouldn’t see much infection, and perhaps we were lulled into a false sense of security before the spring.
“But in reality, our New Zealand winter has been far kinder, and therefore we’ve seen a consistent 2 to 5 orchards a week turning up and testing positive for PSA V.
“In the last week though that’s accelerated out of site and we’ve had 19. And there’s still more in the pipeline coming through.”
Mr Franks says the growers are simply reeling, and the spread of PSA-v, is just relentless.
“Look we’re in the middle of a bacterial epidemic I think that’s the best way to put it. This is not a situation that can get better.
“There is a lot of effort, and focused effort going on to try and find a solution or some solutions that growers might be able to deploy to get through this. There are a number of novel products are being worked on by Zespri and their research team, and by Seeka and Eastpac and the Taskforce Green network, that have got some good chances of providing some useful tools to growers.
“The problem that we’ve all got is that we can’t get them out quick enough.”
Mr Franks says the industry is thankful that the banks are being supportive and responsible, and working with affected growers.
