The Ministry says that between it and AsureQuality there are approximately 70 staff monitoring traps and carrying out fruit analysis.

Nearly 1400 traps are being monitored and a total of 345 kilograms of fruit from collection bins has been removed for destruction.

Fruit collection bins are now in various schools in the controlled area and alert notices and radio advertisements are now available in a variety of different languages.

NZ Pork Board Chairman, Ian Carter, says if Ministry for Primary Industries Director-General, Wayne McNee, doesn’t meet to discuss the prevention of the Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome, or PRRS, virus entering New Zealand via raw pork, it will have no other option but to appeal the decision by the High Court earlier this month.

The High Court ruled the Ministry didn’t breach the Biosecurity Act because it followed the correct procedures,  and therefore declined a judicial review to overturn new import health standards.

But Mr Carter says there is a real risk PRRS will spread to New Zealand because, although the Ministry may have followed the correct processes, the issue is that there are gaps in the science that need to be addressed.

He says Mr McNee had agreed to talks shortly after the court case  but it now seems he’s reneging.

“We have been trying to have that meeting. Over the last week I’ve been trying to instigate another discussion and meeting that hasn’t materialized. Now Wayne is overseas so it doesn’t appear that’s going to take place.”

Mr McNee is reported as saying the Ministry will vigorously defend any appeal, and any application for further interim relief, as it was extremely important that NZ demonstrates its commitment to obligations under its World Trade Organisation Agreement.

But Federated Farmers president Bruce Wills says while it’s important we meet our obligations, the emphasis needs to be on getting the science right, and encourages the Ministry for Primary Industries to meet for discussions.

“Either they talk things through on a rational basis, and have the scientists involved just to get some comfort from both sides, that would be my strong preference.

“I think going to court and spending money on lawyers is a very expensive and cumbersome way to solve this issue.”

The NZ Pork board has until June 1^st to appeal the decision.

Northland Dairy farmer Murray Jamieson says Dairy Farmers and Forestry will unfairly bear the burden of rates increases in the region, if they go ahead, and is scheduling a meeting between farmers and the council later this month.

“For dairy farmers in particular the rates are going up on average about 44%; the forestry guys from about 150 to 300%; and urban and drystock farmers are decreasing one to two percent”

Mr Jamieson says farmers in the area are furious, including some whose rates are going down:

 “One farmer that I’ve been talking to whose done a lot of work on this he’s actually a drystock farmer and his rates are going down and he’s very angry about it because if they get it wrong it’ll take a lot to fix and he knows that hid rates will end up going up a lot more to fix it in the long term”

Meanwhile in the Kaipara region where rates are rising 31%, Operations Director of Farmers New Zealand, Bill Guest, is calling for the resignation of Mayor Neil Tiller.

Mr Guest,  also a dairy farmer in Dargaville, says the council is introducing a multi-level rating system which will see farmers paying 400% more, and foresters 1100% more, than their urban counterparts in a special, targeted roading rate.  

“I think the mayor has lost the confidence of the people. He has been described as a liar. People have seriously voiced their concerns and their lack of faith”

Federated Farmers local body spokesperson David Rose says it supports targeted rating because those receiving the benefits from services should pay more, but agrees some farmers are being unfairly targeted:

“There are lots of examples around the country where farmers are paying far more for services than they should be”

Mr Rose says although he understands some councils have large debts to pay off, some increases including Murray Jamieson’s region in Northland seem very large:

“In Southland, dairy rates in the next two years are set to double because of what council are targeting at them so those are anomalies from the sort of thing that I mentioned where farmers are being unjustifiably targeted”

However, not all councils are increasing rates.

The Taranaki Regional Council, which has the lowest per capita rating in New Zealand, has confirmed nil rates increases for the 2012/2013 financial year.

Fonterra’s GlobalDairyTrade trade weighted index fell 6.4 per cent overnight on Tuesday. The price of whole milk powder fell 8.9 percent and skim milk powder fell 5.4 percent.

The average on-line auction prices are now down by 41 percent over the past 12 months, falling in eight of the last ten auctions.

Federated Farmers says there are two factors that could cushion the expected drop in their milk payout forecast - the brilliant seasons just past, and the lower Kiwi dollar offering up some currency relief.

But, the organisation says, although most farmers have wisely banked their gains of the past two years, and paid of debt, the advice is to expect a big drop in the opening forecast for the new season, which starts in June, and to budget spending plans accordingly.

Willy Leferink, Federated Farmers dairy chair, says he is picking an opening milk price of around $3.70 a kilo.

The current forecast currently sits at $6.35 per kilo of milk solids.

The line was closed in March after three washouts along the track, and has remained closed since with its future in doubt, amid pleas to the Prime Minister by East Coast Councils to save it.

Hamish Cave, Federated Farmers provincial president for Gisborne/Wairoa, says they need an improved transport system for more efficient imports and exports as there is only one road from Gisborne to Napier.

He says it would cost around 3.4 million dollars to repair the broken line, which pales in comparison to the 1.6 billion dollar upgrade to Auckland’s metro rail network announced last year.

 “We’re totally reliant on transport to get in and out of Gisborne we’re very isolated compared with other districts, we need to have reasonable transport.

“All we’re asking is for a fair slice of the taxpayer dollar and we just want reasonable access and good transport networks I don’t think that’s unreasonable.”

Mr Cave says repairing the line would create more wealth, jobs and opportunities in the region, and is a more viable option than improving the road.

 “One man driving a train can take lots of containers as opposed to lots of trucks with lots of men”

Federated farmer’s support in rebuilding the line coincided with Prime Minister’s attendance at its regional Annual General Meeting on Wednesday, but Mr Cave says the timing is not intentional.

 “It’s very easy to jump on the bandwagon while everyone’s beating the drum in the beginning but we’re just trying to keep the issue alive I guess”

And we want the beagles back at Wellington Airport, says Hort NZ president, Andrew Fenton.

“Well we want the beagles to be increased. There actually are beagles working now, but we want them dramatically increased. We are looking towards the budget in the next week.

“But more importantly the 100 per cent x-ray of all baggage we don’t believe is a major inconvenience for all passengers, versus the incursion of a pest such as the Queensland fruit fly.

Mr Fenton says things have got to the point where New ZSealand is relying on 2000 kilometres of sea to provide our biosecurity protection.

And he says it’s the Government’s determination to cut costs that has now cost New Zealanders big money, and risk billions of dollars in national earnings.

“The events of the past week have given us a bit of a heads up, a bit of a scare, it’s been growers’ worst fears for years and Horticulture New Zealand has been talking about that for years.

“They reduced the x-ray about 18 months to 2 years ago – we want that reinstated, its a s simple as that.”

Mr Fenton says HortNZ has the confidence in the passionate and capable people working on the ground, searching for any more fruit flies, but he says New Zealanders don’t want to go through a scare like this every six months.

He says figures show a reduction in frontline biosecurity staff of 12 per cent since 2007, to just 280 people at airports around the country.

At the same time passenger arrivals have increased by 14 per cent, to 4.9 million.

Mr Fenton says the upcoming Budget could be an opportunity to redress the balance, but he doesn’t hold out a lot of hope.

“Well I’m not very confident quite frankly, because actually because the Government has been on this restructuring, cost cutting, exercise in a number of ministries, MFAT and the Ministry for Primary Industries. So we don’t want to see biosecurity missed out.

“Here’s an opportunity, a single Queensland Fruit Fly, reminding us of the absolute importance and the critical nature of our biosecurity protection.

"And here is an opportunity coming up in the Budget, for the Minister to increase that defence system.”

Discussions between the Ministry for Primary Industries, NIWA, and oyster boat skippers and quota owners have led to the self regulated limit of about 9 and a half million oysters being lifted to about 11 and a half million, still well below the Government’s Total Allowable Commercial Catch limit (TACC) of nearly 15 million.

Back in the 1980’s the industry was harvesting around 82 million oysters.

The shellfish disease Bonamia is still present in the oyster population, but at levels that are not inhibiting growth.

Which means the industry has to play it by ear from season to season, and cannot predict whether this season’s increase will be sustained.

Federated Farmers meat and fibre chair, Jeanette Maxwell, says North Island farmers will have to decide very shortly how much longer they are prepared to wait for AFFCO, against needing to get rid of their stock before Winter.

“It will be interesting, because the pressure is starting to come on, and so farmers will have to make the critical choice. I mean AFFCO is not completely not working, because they have got non-union staff and what have you still working.

“But as the pressure for the beef kill increases, critical decisions will have to be made by both parties.”

Because AFFCO doesn’t have supply contracts, farmers are free to supply rival processors, and Jeanette Maxwell says AFFCO’s competitors may profit from the dispute.

Meanwhile, Mana Party leader and Te Tai Tokerau MP Hone Harawira. told Country 99TV that Maori farm owners around the country are meeting to discuss taking a stand against Talleys AFFCO.

He says Maori farm owners want AFFCO to be more amenable to the wage negotiation process.

Mr Harawira says he has seen firsthand the hurt the Talley family is causing Affco workers and their children in the town of Morewa in the far North, despite the Moerewa AFFCO plant being one of its top performers.

“They got rid of the Unions in their fishing industry, they got rid of the Unions in their factories, and they intend to do the same thing in their meat plants.

“What they’re doing is not so much about performance, it’s about union bashing. And I just don’t think people up here like the way Talleys are using all of their money and all of their power to bash workers.”

While the workers are doing it tough after being locked out for more than 10 weeks, Mr Harawira says support for them is strong.

“There’s a lot of support for them. I stopped in there (Moerewa) on Friday and there was a group that was coming up to Hui at Te Kao from Waikato. And they stopped off there too to show their support.

“There is a lot of support for the workers and their families and I have to say very little  support for what the company is doing.”